The Green Arrow
by MrZ1289
Summary: Two years after his confrontation with Deathstroke, Starling City is a different place for Oliver Queen. Life at Queen Consolidated may have gotten easier but life as The Green Arrow is only getting more challenging. With a dark presence not felt for years returning to Starling, Oliver must find all the help he can get to stop this dark menace.
1. Prologue: Two Years Later

"Two years." Oliver muttered softly to himself.

Two years since everything changed. If Oliver had thought that The Undertaking would have changed things for him, he couldn't have imagined what would have happened just 18 months later.

Slade Wilson, the friend that he had killed back on that hellhole of an island, had returned. Not only had he returned but he had returned with a blood lust.

One that only the friends and family of Oliver Queen could satisfy.

For weeks, Oliver warred with his former friend, always seemingly a step behind. For hours at a time, he bunkered down in the basement of Verdant, searching for any possible clue to where he could find Slade or what he was really planning.

Those weeks were the darkest in his life, eclipsing even those on the island as he watched his closest friend slip slowly into madness.

Finally, Slade made his move, going after the one that he determined would be the one the one person in his life he would miss most.

Surprisingly to Oliver, he didn't go after Laurel or Thea. He didn't go after Sara or Dig. He didn't touch his mother, either.

No, his target was Felicity Smoak.

To this day, the knowledge that Slade knew him that well and had watched him that closely frightened him. If Slade had seen how much Felicity meant to him, not Arrow but Oliver, who else knew that information?

While Oliver had managed to recover Felicity physically unharmed, nothing was ever the same between them.

She had left for Gotham the next day.

Every day, Oliver woke up, praying that she had called him in the night, letting him know that she was on her way back. Instead, he hadn't spoken to her in nearly ten months and when they had spoken, he hadn't been able to say what he was really wanted to say.

"I love you." Oliver muttered to no one in particular. "I'm sorry."

Instead, they traded small talk at an event that he had attended in Gotham, never even coming close to talking about what had happened that night with Slade Wilson.

"Oliver?"

The voice belonged to Sara Lance, officially code-named The Canary. Since their encounter with Nyssa al Ghul, Sara had remained in Starling City, ever by his side. Now, patrols through The Glades were done in tandem, both to cover more ground and to ensure safety.

When Felicity had left, Sara had done her best to fill her place, learning as much about computers as she could. She also tried to be his emotional replacement for Felicity, the one who he could talk to. Unfortunately, Sara lacked Felicity's real world charm because Sara was just as broken as Oliver was. There was no escape in a conversation with Sara, just depression.

She had seen that nothing was going to happen between the two of them and had backed off. Now, they kept things strictly professional between the two of them, even at work, where Sara had been named the Head of Internal Security at the Tech Branch of Queen Consolidated. Another way of keeping Sara close, much like he had with Felicity, although he did notice that he didn't keep Sara anywhere near as close.

"I'm here." Oliver growled, his voice cracking from misuse.

"Why are you sitting in the dark?" Sara asked as she came to stand next to them.

"I prefer the dark." Oliver replied before grabbing the bar of the salmon ladder in front of him and starting his rigorous workout.

"It's been two years, O." Sara replied softly. "Let it go."

"What part of it?" Oliver roared as he hung from the bar, a lifeline that suspended him twenty feet off the floor.

"All of it. Her, Slade, the whole damn thing."

"I'll remember that the next time we talk about Nanda Parbat."

"We don't talk about that." Sara snapped, although her voice barely broke a whisper.

"Exactly."

"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are in a cheery mood."

Roy Harper now known as The Arsenal and the third part of their super team. After deciding that a bow and arrow wasn't his thing, Roy decided on knife training. Now, decked completely in red, he worked the downtown area of the city when he could. Taking classes at Starling Tech University by day made it difficult to be a vigilante by night.

"You know what day it is." Sara replied, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Of course, I do. I just figured we wouldn't have a repeat of last year."

"We won't." Oliver said simply as he started making his way down the ladder.

"Sure." Roy muttered skeptically.

"Last year" had been a complete blow-up between Sara and Oliver when Sara tried to get Oliver to talk about why he had been so grumpy in the recent days. When it was discovered that everyone else in the lair had already forgotten the day, Oliver had exploded, yelling about everything from Felicity to Slade to the mission that had gone bad.

Needless to say, Oliver was quite aware that everyone had remembered to give him his space so far this year. All except for one man.

"Good luck getting him to cheer up. He wasn't particularly cheery before Slade came to town either."

John Diggle, his closest (living) friend, just couldn't seem to get away from bothering Oliver about Slade. Personally, Oliver thought it was because of the amount of grief Dig got at home. Only six months after Slade's attack on Oliver, Lyla and Dig had gotten remarried. Only a few months later, Andrew, Diggle child #1, had been born. Now, Dig made only rare appearances inside the lair, frequently working only as a driver in the streets or maintaining a vigil from his home.

"Thanks for the pep talk, Dig." Oliver said gruffly as he fell to the floor. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem, man."

This had been their dynamic for two years now. While all of them did their best to keep things loose and informal, none of them could honestly say that their relationship felt like anything more than that of business associates. Ever since Felicity's departure from the team, the group had been fighting to try and keep the light atmosphere that she had managed to keep while working with the rest of them.

Unfortunately, that wasn't any of their personality. At some point, all four of them had been broken. While Diggle and Roy had done a good job of putting the pieces back together, the other two hadn't succeeded in the least bit. Laurel wouldn't sit in the same room with Sara and after Oliver had sworn off his mother, he had been left with only Thea as someone that he could even consider family.

Tommy was dead. Laurel hated him because he chose to associate with her sister. Moira had betrayed his family's trust too many times.

The crime rate in Starling City may have been down (and it was) but things hadn't been this bad for Oliver Queen since he had been on the island.

"What's on the agenda for this evening?" Roy asked softly, obviously not wanting to incur Oliver Queen's wrath.

Turning around, Oliver marched from the salmon ladder to the computer, pressing the ENTER key which started the presentation he had prepared prior to starting his dark workout. Instantly, a collection of maps, pictures and files popped up onto the screen, highlighting their target for the evening.

"We've finally found enough to move forward against Councilman Bolt." Oliver started, his voice radiating his business-like attitude. "Just as a refresher, Councilman Thomas Bolt is certainly on his way up to becoming Mayor within the next year. Unfortunately for Mr. Bolt, he is unaware that we know about his more illegal activities. Specifically, he's been facilitating the purchase of military grade firearms by various gangs around The Glades. He's been doing this in order to support gang violence as a way to gain an "anti-organized crime" platform for his Mayoral campaign."

"Class act there." Roy muttered.

"Not at all." Oliver replied humorlessly. "We know that a shipment of weapons from Cambodia landed here in Starling City. It's been marked as shipped to ZeusCorps. The only issues being..."

"There's no such thing as ZeusCorps." Sara said, filling in the end of Oliver's sentence.

"Exactly." Oliver replied. "It's a tough trace but we're certain that this is a shell paid for by Thomas Bolt as a cover to bring illegal weapons into the country. Now, Bolt doesn't have the capital to bring them in so he has to be the cover, the man in charge of bringing them in but not paying for them."

"So what's the plan?" Diggle asked softly.

"The plan for tonight is two fold. At any of the previous shipments, Bolt has never been present. However, his right hand man, a former hitman named Vincent Winnfield, has been there every time. Winnfield is known publicly as Bolt's bodyman. If we can connect Winnfield to the weapons, it will look publicly like Bolt is involved, even if we can't get him arrested."

"You said the plan is two fold." Sara replied. "I'm only hearing one."

"The second phase is a direct meet with Bolt. I'll handle that." Oliver answered firmly.

"What's the purpose of that?" Diggle asked curiously.

"To hang him out of a window until he confesses to doing it."

"Nice."

* * *

"Councilman, who's paying for those weapons?" Oliver asked calmly from behind his voice disruptor.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Bolt replied shortly.

"That's a shame."

Quickly, Oliver reached up and released the rope that had held Councilman Thomas Bolt from his 61st story window. Breaking into the Councilman's office had been all too easy and before Bolt even knew what was happening, he had a rope wrapped around his leg and was literally thrown from his window.

Judging from the smell that Oliver got, the abrupt stop at the end of the fall had caused the man to urinate himself.

It was a frequent occurrence when The Green Arrow was involved.

The scream that Bolt let out was blood-curdling as he freefell down the side of the building. Finally, Oliver pressed the button that would slow Bolt down just enough so that the rope would be able to jerk when he reached his stopping point, something that was always particularly terrifying.

Once Bolt reached the bottom, Oliver jumped up and pulled the rope back up the pulley until Bolt hung upside-down in front of him once again.

"I'll ask again, Mr. Bolt, who pays for the weapons?"

"I don't know!" Bolt shouted, crying profusely. "The payment doesn't come through me. I just provide the shipping containers and the cover."

"For what?"

"Huh?"

"What do you get in return?"

"Campaign contributions." Bolt cried out. "The beneficiary is funding almost my entire Mayoral campaign."

"For what reason?" Oliver barked, getting directly in front of Bolt's terrified face.

"I don't know."

"Fine." Oliver replied firmly before reaching out and punching Bolt in the face, knocking him unconscious. Instantly, Oliver removed Bolt from the line and threw him onto the floor of his office. Once that was done, Oliver reached into the storage space on his hip and pulled out the photos of Winnfield and Bolt together and threw them on top of the knocked out politician.

"Arrow to Arsenal: come in." Oliver said firmly into his radio.

_"Arsenal here. What's the deal?"_

"No information here. Nothing we can really use anyway. Give those camera crews their story and then get the hell out of there." Oliver replied before addressing the other person on the line. "Dig, call Detective Lance. Tell him what's going on and that's he going to need to get an arresting unit over to Bolt's office."

_"Will do."_

"Good. Arrow: Out."

With that conversation, Oliver quickly tied Bolt to his desk before racing to the roof. Once he was there, he was able to zipline to another building three blocks away, getting himself out of harm's way.

"Arrow to Canary: Come in."

_"Canary to Arrow: What is it?" _Sara replied, sounding quite bothered about Oliver's call.

"Catch you at a bad time?"

_"Just got done taking down three potential rapists or muggers. Not sure whether they were more interested in her or her purse. Either way, there was a patrol running through the area as I got done."_

"So you had to bolt."

_"Exactly."_

"Well that's probably a good idea." Oliver mused. "Anyway, finish your patrol and then back to base. We're done for the night."

* * *

Back at the ArrowCave, the four members of Team Arrow sat quietly, watching the news as Councilman Thomas Bolt was arrested for assisting in the transportation of illegal weapons. Knowing that this was simply a symptom of some larger problem made things worse than he should feel, knowing that they had effectively blocked any further weapons from coming in via the docks for quite some time.

However, the bigger problem was that there was still a mysterious benefactor out there, one with enough cash to pay for a Mayoral candidate while simultaneously shipping massive quantities of untraceable weapons into the city.

"Smile, Oliver." Sara said simply as she sat next to him. "We won."

"A battle, maybe." Oliver replied, a cold tone to his voice. "But there's something not right about this. I looked into Bolt's eyes and he told me the truth. Somehow, whoever is actually bringing the weapons into the city is doing it completely anonymously."

"That's a fight for another day." Diggle countered. "Today, we did what we can."

"Sure." Oliver replied, obviously not convinced. "Go home, guys. We'll start again tomorrow night."

With a few deep sighs, the other made to stand. After gathering their things, Roy and Diggle left but Sara stood, watching as Oliver continued to watch the news and pour over other files.

"Are you coming?"

"No." was Oliver's simple reply.

"Fine." Sara whispered softly before placing a small kiss on his left temple. "Don't kill yourself down here."

"Turn the lights off on your way out." Oliver whispered back.

Seeing that there was no getting through to the young CEO, Sara turned in place and marched out of the room, following his instructions and shutting the lights off before climbing the stairs into the nightclub above.

Finally, darkness ruled his world again. Since Slade, his world had felt like nothing but darkness. Darkness at the realization of how alone he was, at how close to death Felicity had come and how he had finally pushed her over the edge, pushed her away.

With that, darkness became his only friend.

For who knows how long, Oliver sat in the darkness, watching the news and waiting for the sun to rise. The CEO of Queen Consolidated rarely slept and when he did, he had destroying nightmares of the night that Slade Wilson destroyed everything he had worked so hard to build in his return from the island.

A report on the news suggested that The Green Arrow had again been responsible for bringing down the corrupt councilman, much like he had with Alderman Blood just two years earlier. Either way, the foolish Police Commissioner once again pledged to bring down The Green Arrow or The Vigilante, as the Commissioner still preferred to call him.

Suddenly, just as Oliver nearly nodded off to sleep, the lights of the ArrowCave came to life. Whether it was Dig, Roy or Sara, Oliver had no interest in turning around. He had intentionally stayed behind after the others had left, relishing the darkness and isolation of an empty ArrowCave. Whoever it was could just deal with his poor company.

"I see you've been living in the dark too."

That voice. _That _voice. Quickly, Oliver calmed himself down, knowing that he was either hallucinating or dreaming. She was gone. He had pushed her away.

"Polite as ever, I see."

This time, there was no question. Somehow, someway, she was here. Slowly, Oliver rotated in _her_ chair, his favorite spot in the Cave. As he turned, she came into sight. In an instant, Oliver was transported back to two months and one day ago, the last time he had seen her here.

Standing in the center of the ArrowCave was Felicity Smoak, the person that among all others Oliver Queen trusted. The one he had pushed away. She looked almost exactly as she had when she had left. Her hair had a slight curl to it just as it hit her shoulders, her glasses framed the serious and pensive look on her face and the dress she wore matched her heels perfectly, as they always had.

Felicity Smoak had come home.

"We need to talk."


	2. I: Prometheus

_Suddenly, just as Oliver nearly nodded off to sleep, the lights of the ArrowCave came to life. Whether it was Dig, Roy or Sara, Oliver had no interest in turning around. He had intentionally stayed behind after the others had left, relishing the darkness and isolation of an empty ArrowCave. Whoever it was could just deal with his poor company._

_"I see you've been living in the dark too."_

_That voice. That voice. Quickly, Oliver calmed himself down, knowing that he was either hallucinating or dreaming. She was gone. He had pushed her away._

_"Polite as ever, I see."_

_This time, there was no question. Somehow, someway, she was here. Slowly, Oliver rotated in her chair, his favorite spot in the Cave. As he turned, she came into sight. In an instant, Oliver was transported back to two months and one day ago, the last time he had seen her here._

_Standing in the center of the ArrowCave was Felicity Smoak, the person that among all others Oliver Queen trusted. The one he had pushed away. She looked almost exactly as she had when she had left. Her hair had a slight curl to it just as it hit her shoulders, her glasses framed the serious and pensive look on her face and the dress she wore matched her heels perfectly, as they always had._

_Felicity Smoak had come home._

_"We need to talk."_

"What?" Oliver asked, shock apparent in his voice.

"Polite and a bit deaf." Felicity said with a smirk. "Although you never were the best listener. I swear to God, there were times that I would just sit at this computer and talk and you wouldn't listen to one word. Not that I was really surprised, I always was the best rambler, which I seem to be doing right now. OK, I'm going to stop. I stopped. Good. Still stopping."

Yup, definitely Felicity.

"What are you doing here?"

"Deaf." Felicity replied as she sat down next to him, rolling her eyes. "I said we need to talk."

"About what?" Oliver answered, suddenly very nervous that they were about to have the conversation that he had been dying to have for two years.

"Bruce Wayne."

Instantly, Oliver felt the energy and anticipation that he had just had leave his body twice as quickly as it had entered.

"What about Wayne?" Oliver replied, doing his best to keep from sounding bitter. "He's not really any of my concern."

"He should be." Felicity said before opening her bag and handing him a file. The front simply said "Wayne, Bruce" with TOP SECRET in giant red letters underneath it.

"Where did you get this?"

"I may have been sneaking around the A.R.G.U.S. databases." Felicity said with a smirk. "I printed all of this off my computer. The file itself isn't really top secret. Well, the information inside it is but I bought the folder at OfficeMax for two dollars. I just thought it looked cooler."

"Of course you did. What's in here?"

"What you can't read?"

"You would like me to sit here and read this whole while you wait? Because I can do that." Oliver said with a grin that he hadn't felt in years. "Or, you could just tell me what's so important."

"Fine." Felicity replied, again rolling her eyes at him. "There's definitely something up with Bruce Wayne. You know the story: parents are killed in front of him when he's ten, he leaves to go to college and doesn't come back for nearly a decade."

"Yeah, he got back what like 18 months ago?"

"Yes. Almost instantly, I noticed something strange."

"And that is?"

"He frequently just disappears." Felicity said as she opened the file. "Large quantities of money from his accounts just disappear as do various special projects for WayneTech. Then, there are numerous other projects at Wayne Tower that he alone can access."

"That's strange. Wayne is known for his business acumen even less than I am."

"Exactly!" Felicity shouted in excitement.

This was the Felicity that he missed. The one who got so excited when she was able to crack the code or figure out the problem. When she was like this, there was no one else in the world he would rather be around.

"So, isn't it a bit strange that the most aloof owner of a major corporation in the history of the world has three dozen special projects that not even his CEO have access?"

"Wait, Fox can't access them either?"

"Nope." Felicity replied. "Only Wayne's log-in information will get him what he needs."

"And how did you get this information?"

"Well, being the leading researcher at WayneTech into all things computers can get me access to pretty much whatever I want."

"Fair enough." Oliver replied. "So where does this information lead?"

"That is the one thing I can't quite place. Felicity admitted. "It could be a whole host of things and with some of the things I've seen, I'm not willing to rule any of them out."

"Good point. So what would you like me to do?"

"Actually, I'm not quite sure." Felicity admitted with an embarrassed grin. "I just finished compiling this information, told Bruce that I was leaving to visit some Starling City friends for a week and then got on the WayneTech private jet that brought me here."

_Bruce. _She was on first name basis with the most vile man in the country, as far as Oliver was concerned. He was a foolish boor of a man who gave money to stupid things and seemed to care nothing about the lives of those around him. Parents death or not, Wayne had no excuse for his behavior. However, maybe there was something hidden under there if Felicity had caught on to something.

"It's not like you to act without a plan." Oliver mused. "Wait a minute, a week? For this conversation?"

Felicity blushed softly when he brought this up.

"I wasn't sure that I was actually going to be able to approach you. I've already been in town for four days."

Four days. She had been in town for four days and he had no idea. He had stopped checking her cell phone tracer, which he had begged her to leave on when she left, six months earlier and hadn't thought to be looking for it again. He quickly made a mental note to go back to checking it.

"Why could you not approach me?" Oliver asked softly. "Felicity, you should know that you can always talk to me."

"Can I, Oliver?" Felicity asked, a harsh tone in her voice that Oliver had rarely heard. "I haven't heard from you in almost a year."

"I thought that's the way you wanted it. After...after the incident-"

"You mean after Slade kidnapped me?"

This wasn't the Felicity he remembered. There was a rage and an anger in her voice that Oliver hadn't ever heard. Not ever.

"Yes, Felicity." he admitted softly. "After that, you took that job at WayneTech the next day."

"I did." Felicity replied, before suddenly shifting in her seat. "Anyway, I wasn't sure how you would react, so I waited. But now that I'm here are you going to help me look into Wayne?"

She had just very pointedly changed the subject. As sad as it made Oliver, maybe it was for the better. The fact that there hadn't been any major deaths in his life since Tommy seemed to be too much of a miracle. Maybe he was doomed to love a woman who hated him as a sacrifice for the survival of the rest of his family.

"I don't hate you, by the way."

Something that had developed in the weeks before her departure had just jumped back at them. Her uncanny ability to know exactly what was going on inside his head. It was like she had some sort of device that was reading his thoughts.

Actually, he wouldn't put it passed her.

Ignoring her last comment, Oliver pressed on, his heart breaking as he did.

"I'll help." Oliver said with a forced smirk. "I'll let the board know that I'm going to make a visit to our Gotham branch. But in order to do this, I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"I need you to disappear for a couple of days." Oliver replied. "I need a good cover for why I'm going to Gotham. Gotham QC doesn't have much in the way of important projects going on. So, I need to use you as my cover."

"Cover?" Felicity asked in confusion.

"Visiting you will be my cover. I'll say that I'm going to Gotham QC but as long as no one knows you're in town, I can have some leak to the rest of the board that my real intention is to visit you and fix our relationship. It's no secret that I haven't spoken to my hand-picked executive assistant in almost a year."

"Ah. So you're going to fix our relationship?" Felicity asked with an evil grin. "Is that why you're going?"

"We'll see." Oliver replied, doing his best to maintain his cover and knowing that he was probably failing.

"Sure." Felicity said as she stood up. "I kept my apartment in town. I'll be there for a couple days and then leave on Friday for Gotham ahead of you."

"Good. Can you meet me at the airport?"

"I'll do my best." Felicity replied as she turned towards the door. Watching her go was like torture. Here she was, back in the ArrowCave where she belonged and just like that she was leaving again. Before Oliver had any idea what was going on, he was speaking.

"Felicity."

The word slipped out from between his lips like a secret. A poorly kept secret, that is. Slowly, she turned around, a look of apprehension on her face. She knew what Oliver wanted to say. She had to. She had always known what he was about to say.

"It's good to see you." Oliver whispered, disappointment ringing in his own voice.

"You too." Felicity replied, a tear noticeably falling down her face. Then, just like that, she was gone as quickly as she had appeared.

For nearly an hour, Oliver stared at the steps up to Verdant, praying that she would return. That she was jump into his arms and stay forever. Instead, all Oliver could see was the lights of Verdant going dim and the sounds of the heavy bass waning away as the time turned from late evening to early morning. Eventually and quite reluntantly, Oliver Queen stood and walked out of the ArrowCave, never quite feeling as depressed as he had right then.

She had been there.

Then, she was gone.

* * *

Oliver slept restlessly before finally waking up and dressing quickly. As Oliver straightened his tie, all he could think of was last night. It had almost been like seeing a ghost, like the night when Slade had made his reappearance. While he had known that Felicity had been alive, the fact that she had appeared and disappeared made it seem like she almost hadn't been there at all.

A voicemail from her reminding him not to forget the file she had given him, and that he did actually need to read it before he came to Gotham, proved that it had not been a dream.

As Dig pulled up to Queen Tower, the newly renamed headquarters of Queen Consolidated, Oliver couldn't help but think about how lonely this trip had been for the last two years. Even if they didn't pick Felicity up on the way in to work, she was almost always in some form of communication with him, whether it was QC business or his "other" job. Now, he sat in silence as he rode towards the job that he secretly resented more than anything.

He hated the feeling of being shoehorned into working for his family's company. While he had grown into a fairly competent CEO, Oliver had always desired to give the position away once the company was in a better place. For whatever reason, he couldn't do it. Even though he had never repaired his relationship with his mother, he felt it was his responsibility to his father, a continuation of the promise he made to his father to right his wrongs.

Exiting his black Cadillac, Oliver made his way into the building where his personal team of three met him. Rather than replacing Felicity with one person, he had chosen three. One, Samuel Todd, acted as his personal scheduler for both work and non-business events. Another, Emily Ramsey, acted as a buffer between him and the rest of the Board of Directors. The last one, a middle-aged man named Anderson Shepard, was his personal business analyst, someone personally hired to ignore the opinions of every other person in the world and provide an unbiased opinion.

The second he walked in the front door, all three began speaking at once. Rarely did Oliver answer any of their requests until later today and this day was no exception. Walking silently to the door of his own private elevator, he listened while they all talked. He knew that they would all approach him later after the board meeting so he didn't bother answering.

All he did was simply enter his elevator and let the door close behind them. Once Diggle hit the button for the top floor, he smirked softly behind Oliver.

"What's on your mind?" Oliver asked softly.

"Why did you even bother hiring them?"

"They serve a purpose." Oliver answered simply. "Their purpose just doesn't matter until after the board meeting is over."

"Fine." was Diggle's simple reply.

They finished the rest of the ride silently before stepping out into the already crowded board room. In the last two years, Oliver had established control over the company in several ways. First, Oliver had purchased stocks in several small starter companies that had made him an immense amount of money. That money was then transferred into the purchase of larger quantities of QC stock.

Within a few months of Slade Wilson's appearance in Starling, Oliver had 62% control of QC.

Secondly, with his control ensured, Oliver fired all of the Board of Directors and hired another group entirely. They were all being paid nearly as much as some CEOs would be paid. This was done to ensure that they would give their true opinions on matters. If they didn't, they would be fired. One person that Oliver left at QC was Isabel Rochev, who he had named Chairman of the Board.

Unlike other corporations, the Board had no actual moving power with Oliver's consent. Therefore, there was no real damage that Isabel could do and Oliver could keep a close eye on her, as much as he had come to detest the woman for several reasons. First, she was constantly a thorn in his side and finally, and more important, she represented a significant block between him and Felicity, a visual reminder of how blind he had been.

Either way, she was there and the board meeting was started.

"Morning everyone." Isabel started. "As usual, we will start with our CEO. Oliver?"

Oliver smirked as he heard her disdain for him creep into her voice.

"Certainly." Oliver replied, doing his best playboy impersonation. "I only really have one thing to report. This Friday, I will be leaving to visit our Gotham City branch. I'll spend the weekend meeting with some friends and taking in the sights. Then, on Monday morning, I intend to tour the facilities there and visit with management."

"Why Gotham City, Mr. Queen?" one of the board members asked. "There's almost nothing of value there. In fact, the Board has considered closing it down on numerous occasions."

"Exactly why I'm going." Oliver shot back. "Gotham City is a resource we should be using. Instead, the facilities there are rotting, the management is getting stale and there seems to be no progress in any form there. I intend to interview staff and look into the facilities there to see why."

"Isn't that something that someone a little less "high profile" should do?" Isabel asked harshly.

"Maybe, but that's exactly why I'm going. I intend to use my "high profile," as you would put it, to get the opinions of the employees there to see what could be done to make Gotham City more productive."

For a few moments, the room was silent. Then, a voice rang out from the far end of the table next to Isabel.

"No offense to you, Mr. Queen-"

"I'm sure." Oliver murmured softly.

"-but isn't this something that Ms. Rochev would be more suited for? If this were a simple walk-through, one where we just needed a face, you would be perfect. But this is actually supposed to be a business trip, then I would insist that Isabel accompany you?"

For a second, Oliver sat there silent. He was impressed by the honesty this man showed, as condescending as it may have been. Paying them good money had been worth it. Finally, Oliver leaned forward.

"Don't be worried." Oliver said dismissively. "I intend to record everything. My man, Mr. Diggle, will be following me with a camera or voice recorder. You will get a copy of everything that I see and say and everything that is said to me."

"But, Mr Queen-"

"That's that." Oliver cut the board member off firmly. "I do know that I am not the best at this kind of thing. However, I would like to think that over the past three years in charge of this company, my business acumen has grown. I would like this opportunity to stretch my legs and see how I do."

"So this has nothing to do with Felicity Smoak?"

The mention of Felicity caused Oliver to stop breathing. Looking down to the other end of the table, he saw Isabel, the obvious originator of the question, looking at him ravenously, just waiting for him to make a wrong step. Finally, taking one deep breath, Oliver settled himself and answered.

"I will be visiting Ms. Smoak during my time in Gotham City." Oliver said simply.

"Why would you have to do that?" Isabel asked victoriously. "She flew into Starling four days ago."

"Excuse me?"

"A private plane owned by WayneTech landed at Starling's private airport four days ago with one passenger: Felicity Smoak." Isabel answered firmly. "She's been in town nearly four days and isn't leaving for another two."

"How do you even know that?" Oliver asked, not even bothering to deny the accusation.

"When a plane owned by one of our largest rivals arrives in town, I take notice." Isabel replied violently. "Especially when it carries a former QC employee."

Well, this certainly complicated things. Thinking as quickly as he could, Oliver countered.

"Felicity and I are in a series of meetings that could result in her returning to QC." Oliver replied softly, hoping the lie would convince them/her. "My personal feelings for her aside, Felicity is a brilliant mind and a person that belongs at QC. I have talked with her about positions in both Starling and Gotham City."

"Hence the reason for the visit to Gotham?" one of the close Board members asked.

"In part." Oliver admitted. "I will still be doing what I said I would be doing while Felicity is at WayneTech. After the fact, I will be giving her a tour of facilities in Gotham."

"You're going to expose our company's secrets to an employee of a rival?"

"No, Ms. Rochev. Any even moderately restricted areas will not be part of the tour. I am simply doing my best to convince an incredibly talented friend to return to the QC family."

"Or just return to Starling."

"Excuse me?"

This was what it was like on a daily basis with Isabel Rochev. She was constantly doing everything she could do get under his skin. Thankfully, years of her company had Oliver's used to her tactics and he rarely rose the bait.

Unfortunately, Felicity was a sore subject, especially recently. Thankfully for him, Isabel did not press the subject any further. Instead, she opted to continue the meeting.

"Anything else, Mr. Queen?"

"Nothing." Oliver said through gritted teeth. "Nothing at all."

* * *

Later that evening, Team Arrow convened in the ArrowCave, ready to work for the night. Their target for the evening: a man who called himself Prometheus. He wore a suit of armor modeled after the Greek gods. Going with the Prometheus theme, he had set of wrist launchers that fired a concentrated pulse of plasma waves. The plasma reached temperatures of over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit and he had been using it to attack police cruisers.

Any attempts by Oliver and Sara to come up with any background information on the man who had come up short. He never spoke during his attacks and he never did anything other than attack cops. There seemed to no pattern, rhyme or reason to his attacks other than that they always involved cops.

"So basically we're stuck." Roy mumbled.

"Basically." Diggle agreed.

"We're not stuck." Oliver growled. "We're just missing something."

"Well, if we're missing something, I don't know what it is." Sara replied softly. "We've looked into everything."

"Did you look into the source of those plasma launchers?"

Now this was unexpected. That voice belonged to the former member of Team Arrow, Felicity Smoak. To the other three, there was a look of shock on their faces. To Oliver, all he could do was smile. Even though he knew she probably wasn't back forever, he could still relish in her being back for the fight one more time.

"Felicity!" Sara shouted as she jumped from her seat to attack their former nerdy aide.

Quickly, Felicity and Oliver explained what had happened the night before and the reason for her visit. Once that was out of their way, work on Prometheus resumed.

"You said something about the plasma launchers?" Oliver said, staring at Felicity a little more than she should have.

"Yes." Felicity said, embarrassed at the attention she was receiving. Suddenly, she jumped forward and got to work on the computer. Within seconds, she flipped around in her seat, a smirk on her face. "These are advanced plasma generators. Normally, plasma generators are held under lock and key. Unfortunately, some were stolen from a Kord transport vehicle six months ago. These are a prototype model, designed to generate the same amount of energy with less size. That's how he was able to strap them to his wrist."

"Do they use any external power source?" Sara asked.

"No, that's the other relatively amazing part."

"Relatively?"

"It runs on phantom power. For some of the power it uses, it recirculates some of the rest of the power back into it."

"That's incredible." Sara remarked. "How come no one else has come up with this kind of technology?

"Well, WayneTech developed similar technology two years ago before decided it was too dangerous. I always knew Kord was a little crazy."

"He's not crazy." Oliver replied. "But with QC, LexTech and WayneTech dominating the market, he has to do what he can. Developing experimental tech is one way to put himself on top."

"Either way, technology like this shouldn't be something we consider lightly." Felicity shot back.

"I'm not saying we should." Oliver answered before moving on. "Either way, it's from Kord. How was it stolen?"

Again, Felicity revolved in her chair and attacked her computer. In seconds, she started talking while still working.

"It was on transport from the Kord Industries back to its normal secure location at a warehouse outside of town. Once it broke city limits, another vehicle, a large one something similar to a cement truck, blasted it in the side. The hit knocked it on its side. With seconds, a crew blew the lock off the back and pulled the plasma generators from the back. As they did that, another vehicle, unmarked blue van, pulled up. Then, as they all jumped into the van, the ringleader, a man wearing what looks like a spartan helmet shot the other three, including both drivers, before driving off."

"No sign of the vehicle after the fact?"

"Oh yeah." Felicity said before showing Oliver her screen. "They found it at the bottom of the Starling Bay."

"Great." Diggle said before wandering towards Oliver and Felicity. "So we have a man, multiple murders, with a Spartan helmet-"

"So he's probably a little nuts." Felicity added.

"Yes, probably." Diggle replied with a grin before continuing. "So, we have a crazy Spartan man with a set of plasma generators and a custom-made battle armor that is probably built specifically to protect him from getting shot with an arrow."

"I hate it when the criminals come prepared." Oliver muttered before turning to suit up. "How do we find him?"

"Well, there's good news there." Felicity answered, turning away as Oliver stripped down. "The battle armor. It is definitely custom-made but not homemade. Instead, it was pieced together from several sources. In his more recent appearances, he wears an updated version of that Spartan helmet."

"And I assume that's our in?" Diggle asked.

"It is. The rest of it is pretty standard stuff or is modified enough that we couldn't trace it. But the helmet is very obviously a Spartan-style replica that has been modified with Kord tech. The company that makes these helmets is known as Leonidas Enterprises. They specialize in creating period recreations of Greek military attire, including but not limited to-"

"Spartan helmets." Roy finished.

"Exactly." Felicity said. "The helmet is one of their more expensive models. The specialized version, a model based on the sacrificial King Leonidas, costs almost ten thousand dollars. They used period metals and they are individually hand-crafted with a date of creation, the name of the creating artist and the name of the recipient."

"How does any of that help us?" Oliver asked, fully suited and ready to go.

"After filtering through various shipping databases, I've found that only one of those models was shipped to Starling City in the last two years."

"Where? Who?"

"A Homer Pandora, home on the corner of 5th and Glass."

"Homer Pandora?" Oliver said with a smirk.

"What about it?" Diggle asked.

"Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, of which Prometheus is an important player. Pandora is also another important part of The Iliad, the first woman to come to Earth as part of the rage that Prometheus caused when he gave fire to the humans."

"Greek tragedy references?"

"We're on our way."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the four vigilantes arrived at their destination: a large warehouse on the edge of the Glades. Standing on the roof overlooking the building, Oliver spoke to the other three.

"Diggle, stay here and be our eyes and ears."

"Got it." Diggle replied before opening his bag of gear to begin set up.

"Roy, you're delayed response." Oliver ordered next. When it appeared that Roy was about to protest, Oliver spoke again. "Let Sara and I try and take him down first. You know that once you get in there, the odds of this guy leaving in a body bag dramatically increase."

"Not always my fault."

"Never said it was." Oliver answered. "Sara and I will go in first and try and take him down. Once you hear our entrance, Roy, give us two minutes. If you don't hear me call you off, enter. Only exception is if you hear me talking to Prometheus himself."

"What then?"

"Wait for my signal. The go word will be tragedy."

"Got it."

"Alright, everyone, move!"

Everyone instantly jumped into action with Oliver and Sara ziplining their way down right next to the building. Once Oliver checked that everyone was in position, he turned his communicator on, linking him back to the Foundry where Felicity was waiting.

"Felicity, any information you can tell me about this place?"

"No. Any information has been removed from public databases and it's apparently not an important enough building to be on private ones."

"Going in blind, lovely." Sara murmured shortly.

"You ready?"

Sara's only answer was a short nod. Seeing that, Oliver kicked the side door to the warehouse in, racing inside. Once they were in, Oliver realized that all the windows had been painted over and there wasn't a single light on in the building. The extreme darkness made it nearly impossible to see anything and only seconds after they walked in the door, Sara bumped into a table, causing the contents of the table to slid ever so slightly.

"Felicity, is there any way to turn the lights on in here?" Oliver barked into the mic.

"No. The building has been removed from everything: power, water, gas. It's like it doesn't exist anymore."

"Well, I think that's what he's going for." Oliver said shortly. "Sara, did you bring those night vision goggles?"

"Sure did." Sara replied. Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver could barely make out Sara reaching in her pocket and pulling out the goggles. Once Sara had them on, she stepped passed Oliver to take point.

"Here's how this works," Sara ordered softly. "I give you a direction, you shoot."

"Got it." Oliver replied with a smirk before falling in line.

Even with the goggles movement for the two of them was slow. From what Oliver could see, the entire warehouse was one large room with hundreds of tables, each with some sort of chemistry set up on them.

"What are on the tables?" Oliver whispered.

"Not sure. They all have the same set-up but without wasting time, I can't stop to see what they are and I can't identify them with the goggles on."

"Fine. Keep moving."

Slowly, they made their way through the open room. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they looked, they found nothing, just the same chemistry set up on tables.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the building slowly began to come on. One by one, rows of lights flickered to life, allowing Oliver and Sara to see the truly terrifying sight in front of them.

"Oh holy shit." Oliver whispered softly.

As the lights came on, Oliver and Sara could see that each of tables did contain a "chemistry set" of sorts. Unfortunately, the chemistry sets were filled with one very identifiable liquid: nitroglycerin.

"Do you like what I've done with the place?"

Slowly, Oliver and Sara turned around to see Prometheus, their mysterious enemy, standing before them, adorned in his usual cape and body armor. With the helmet and body armor on, there wasn't a single inch of human flesh to be seen. In fact, if someone had told Oliver that the thing in front of them was actually some kind of robot, Oliver would have been hard-pressed to disbelieve them."

Quickly switching on his voice distorter, Oliver spoke.

"Prometheus, what the hell do you think you're doing here?"

When he spoke, he spoke with an incredibly pompous tone, as if trying to convince someone that he was portraying the Greek god that he believed himself to be.

"I'm am simply bring chaos and disorder to a world that believes itself to be in control."

"So you're nothing more than some punk?" Sara barked back. "You might as well have painted the walls in here."

"A punk? That's really what you think of me?" Prometheus replied tauntingly. "I am a god. A higher form of intelligence. The rest of humanity will realize, once I have destroyed the pathetic excuse for law and order that they have created, that I am the only power of authority on this pitiful world."

"You really believe that you are some sort of powerful being, don't you?" Oliver asked firmly. "When I put an arrow through that suit of yours, you'll realize just how wrong you were."

"I would like to see you try. As I'm sure you've noticed, each of these tables is rigged with a bomb."

"Bombs? So that's what you call these contraptions? If you are truly some almighty god, why do you need something as mundane as nitroglycerin?"

_"Oliver?" _

Felicity's voice rang into his ear.

"Mundane? Far from it. True, I could truly flex my muscle and prove to the world what a god I am. However, what better to destroy the morale of these pathetic lifeforms than to beat them at their own game, destroy them with their own tools."

_"Oliver, if you can hear me, you need to get out of there. I've finally be able to determine why he picked that building in particular. It's got a gas main hub directly underneath it. I'm sure that he's managed to access that. If he has and that building goes up in smoke, the flames will spread into the gas mains and very quickly, every house connected to gas in downtown Starling runs the risk of getting blown sky-high."_

"So what's the plan? Blow the building up with all of us inside?"

Suddenly, Prometheus flexed his wrists and the sound of plasma generators firing up rang through the air.

"I tire of you, Green Arrow." Prometheus answered, ignoring Oliver's question entirely. "I believe that your use is at an end."

In a flash, Prometheus raised his right arm, firing a blast of plasma energy directly at Oliver. As quickly as he could move, Oliver dove out of the way before reaching into his quiver. Unfortunately, Oliver now faced a dilemma of sorts. Oliver's original plan would have been to use explosive arrows. However, with the nitro present, that wasn't really an option. Plus, most of Oliver's other trick arrows would affect Prometheus, due to the battle armor he wore. Even getting up close and personal with him by striking him with his bow would lack any real effect as long as he wore his helmet and armor.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. Reaching back into his quiver, Oliver grabbed a new experimental arrow. This particular model would act exactly as a taser round, digging into the skin and firing electricity into them, disarming them. However, Oliver wasn't sure whether the prongs would penetrate Prometheus' armor.

Only one way to find out.

Drawing his bow, Oliver dove out from behind the table he was hiding behind and fired. The shot was true and buried itself directly into the center of Prometheus' mask. Instantly, electricity from the on-board battery fired into Prometheus' head.

As expected, this did not take him out. But it did do one thing: it forced him to remove his helmet. Surprisingly, Prometheus looked to be an older man, probably nearing his fifties with all white hair and a scar that ran the entire right side of his head over his eye. He had a gentle stubble on his firm jaw and a fire in his eyes that Oliver rarely saw.

Now, that Prometheus had his mask off, it was time to play ball. Working counter to Sara, the pair of them avoided numerous plasma blasts to step closer to the madman. With each blast, another table was knocked off its axis, causing another small explosion. Thus far, the building itself hadn't caught on fire, although Oliver expected it was only a matter of time.

Once she was in rage, Sara stepped forward and laid a destructive shot to the back of Prometheus' knee with her staff, causing a slight tremble in his stance.

That small opening was all Oliver needed. Seeing his enemy's balance was off, Oliver launched himself at the Greek god-wannabe, smashing him repeatedly in the head with the broad side of his bow. Eventually, Oliver broke the older man's arm defense and crushed him. One final blow to the head from Sara's staff knocked the villain unconscious.

"Not bad." Oliver said softly to Sara with a smile.

"Same to you."

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the building. Rotating in place, Oliver turned to see the far end of the building completely in flames, preventing their escape. Looking up, Oliver saw that all the catwalks that may have led to upper windows in the past had been removed.

"Felicity, we need an exit."

_"The door you came in is out?"_

"It's kind of on fire right now." Sara said shortly.

_"Great. Well, before you get an exit, you need to shut of the gas mains in the basement. The stairs should be at the safer end of the building. Also, fire should be there in five."_

"We may not have that long." Oliver growled as he picked up Prometheus' unconscious body and raced towards the basement stairs. Nearly jumping down the entire length of stairs, Oliver found himself at a set of levers and rotating dials.

_"Does this seem familiar?" _Felicity mumbled into the comm.

"The first time we met Tockman."

_"First time?"_

"Long story." Oliver replied before jumping forward and starting to turn off all of the valves. It was slow work as some of them had gotten stuck open and those required two people. Thankfully, Oliver had Sara with him and they were able to finish just as Oliver felt a massive explosion ring from over their head. Looking back up the stairs, all Oliver could see was a wall of fire racing towards him.

Without thinking, Oliver grabbed Sara and dove to the floor, doing his best to shield her from the blast with his body. As Oliver hit the floor underneath the stone stairs, he could felt the heat sear his back and within seconds, a growl of extreme pain came roaring from his lips.

"Gaaaaaah!" Oliver screaming in pain.

_"Oliver!?" _Felicity shouted into his ear.

"Oliver!?" he heard Sara whisper next to him.

The last thing he remembered before slipping into unconsciousness was Sara's concerned face leaning over his as he slipped away.

* * *

As Oliver woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in an abandoned warehouse. The second thing he noticed was the pain.

"Grrrr." Oliver growled as he attempted to pick himself up off the mattress he was laying on. To say that he failed was an extreme understatement. He barely managed to lift himself off the mat before collapsing in pain and exhaustion.

Looking around, he suddenly noticed that he was in the first floor bedroom at Queen Mansion, a place he hadn't lived in just over two years. He also noticed Sara, Diggle and, to his relief, Felicity seated in the room around him.

It was Diggle who spoke first.

"Take it easy, partner." Diggle said through a grim smile.

"How bad?"

"Third degree on parts, second on the rest of your back. You'll be out of commission for a couple weeks."

"What's the story?"

"We went with kitchen fire gone bad." Sara said softly. "Unfortunately, that means we had to torch your penthouse."

"Worth it." Oliver mumbled. "How long was I out?"

"Just two days while the meds kicked in and some basic first aid was applied. You'll have no lasting issues, other than a scar."

"Those I think I can deal with." Oliver said with a grin.

Suddenly, Felicity stood and made her way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Oliver asked urgently.

"My plane is scheduled to leave in an hour or so." Felicity said sadly. "I don't want to keep the pilot waiting."

For a second, Oliver thought about letting her poor excuse go. Then, he changed his mind.

"Could you two excuse us for a second?"

With a glance at each other, Sara and Diggle made their way by Felicity and out of the room. Once he was sure they were gone, Oliver fought to prop himself up, barely succeeding before speaking.

"Where are you going?"

"Home, Oliver." Felicity replied simply. "Back to Gotham, where I belong."

"You belong here."

"I can't be here."

"Why not?" Oliver begged softly.

"This is why not." Felicity answered, pointing to Oliver and his injured state.

"Injuries happen in my line of work, Felicity. I get over them and I get back to work."

For a second, Felicity appeared ready to fire back with some snappy retort. Instead, she came and sat at the chair where Diggle had placed himself, the one directly next to his bed. Grabbing his hand, she clasped it between her own, the two of her barely engulfing his.

"It's not the injuries that bother me." Felicity said, a single tear in her eye. "It's why they happen that bother me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you got this wound protecting Sara."

"Felicity, you know-"

"Oliver Queen, I got over being jealous with Sara a long time ago." Felicity said, a rough edge to her voice. "It's not the Sara part of that sentence that bothers me."

"Then, wha-oh."

The protecting part. The instinct that Oliver had discovered the moment Ivo had pulled that gun on Sara back on the island. Without a thought, he had thrown himself in front of her, willing to give his life for her.

Like he had been for Felicity.

"Do you remember when the last time I saw you like this was?" Felicity asked softly.

"No."

"Well, you wouldn't remember." Felicity replied. "Because you were recovering from just having come out of a coma. The coma that Deathstroke put you in when you came after me. He kidnapped you because he knew it would get to you and despite every warning that I gave you when he let you talk to me, you still came after him. You came knowing that it was probably a death sentence! Why!?"

"Because it meant saving you and that's all that mattered." Oliver answered honestly.

Tears were now freely flowing from Felicity's eyes. Whether they were tears of sadness or anger or some combination of both, Oliver couldn't tell. Either way, he knew that he was the cause and he did not like that.

"I couldn't do that anymore, Oliver." Felicity admitted. "I sat in that hospital for two days until you came out of that coma. Two days to sit and watch you play chicken with death, all because of me. All because I couldn't keep Wilson from taking me."

"This wasn't your fault, Felicity. It was mine." Oliver shot back.

"And that's exactly why I can't do this anymore." Felicity said as she stood up, placing a light kiss on his cheek as she did. "I can't be the reason for your pain. I care too much about you for that. So, if the price I have to pay is to stay away, then that's what I'll do."

Quickly, Felicity collected her things and marched to the door. Opening the door swiftly, she stepped towards the exit before stopping and turning back to Oliver.

"I think we know where we stand, Oliver." Felicity whispered, tears impacting her ability to speak now. "I loved you almost from the moment you walked into my office with that busted laptop. Whenever you figured it out, I think that you love me too even if you've never said it."

Slowly, Oliver nodded his confirmation, a sadness crushing his heart as he watched her sob in his doorway.

"I'm sorry, Oliver, but I can't be the reason that you get hurt anymore. You should have died when you took that beating that Slade gave you. Instead, you came back and I think it's unlikely that you'll get a second miracle because the first ones are hard enough to come by."

Stopping for a moment to collect herself, it was all Oliver could do to prevent himself from forcing his injured body to jump across the room and put his arms around her. Instead, he sat still while she sobbed to herself.

Finally collecting herself, she finished her thought.

"That day, the day you came after Slade, was the worst day of my life. You came, unarmed like he asked, and stood there while he beat you to death. If Sara hadn't come-"

"He would have killed me and you would have survived." Oliver finished her sentence. "It would have been worth it."

"It would have been a miserable existence, knowing that you died a painful and horrible death so that I can survive." Felicity shot back, some of her normal energy returning. "Instead, I know that we are both alive and that I'm not the one causing you pain."

"You not being here causes me pain." Oliver said simply.

"Then that's something I'm going to have to live with." Felicity said before picking up her things again. "Protect Sara and Thea and Diggle and Roy all you want, they can take it."

With that, Felicity turned and marched out of the room. As she did, Oliver felt the blackness in his heart return. Without Felicity there, a shade went over his life, clouding every single happy moment with gloom.

This time, Oliver was pretty sure that Felicity Smoak, the best person he had ever met, had left.

Forever.


	3. II: Wayne

_"I'm sorry, Oliver, but I can't be the reason that you get hurt anymore. You should have died when you took that beating that Slade gave you. Instead, you came back and I think it's unlikely that you'll get a second miracle because the first ones are hard enough to come by."_

_Stopping for a moment to collect herself, it was all Oliver could do to prevent himself from forcing his injured body to jump across the room and put his arms around her. Instead, he sat still while she sobbed to herself._

_Finally collecting herself, she finished her thought._

_"That day, the day you came after Slade, was the worst day of my life. You came, unarmed like he asked, and stood there while he beat you to death. If Sara hadn't come-"_

_"He would have killed me and you would have survived." Oliver finished her sentence. "It would have been worth it."_

_"It would have been a miserable existence, knowing that you died a painful and horrible death so that I can survive." Felicity shot back, some of her normal energy returning. "Instead, I know that we are both alive and that I'm not the one causing you pain."_

_"You not being here causes me pain." Oliver said simply._

_"Then that's something I'm going to have to live with." Felicity said before picking up her things again. "Protect Sara and Thea and Diggle and Roy all you want, they can take it."_

_With that, Felicity turned and marched out of the room. As she did, Oliver felt the blackness in his heart return. Without Felicity there, a shade went over his life, clouding every single happy moment with gloom._

_This time, Oliver was pretty sure that Felicity Smoak, the best person he had ever met, had left._

_Forever._

Eight days after Oliver's disastrous run-in with Prometheus, he landed with Diggle at a private airfield just outside of Gotham City. As Oliver flew into the city, still mildly hopped up on some of the drugs he was taking from the burns, all he could think of was Felicity. Oliver feared that after their last conversation, she wouldn't see him at all while he was in Gotham. Not only would that make him look foolish in front of the Board when he returned and told them he hadn't been able to see her, but it would hurt him more that he was in town and she would choose not to see him.

Thankfully, that thought process was thrown away the moment he stepped off the plane and saw Felicity standing there waiting for him. Slowly making his way down the stairs of his small private jet, he limped his way over to Felicity, fire shooting into his veins with each movement.

"Oliver." she said simply.

"I was worried you wouldn't come." Oliver admitted.

"We still have business, Ollie."

Ollie? She had never called him that. In fact, there had been numerous conversations about how she hated that nickname because it reminded her of the stupid, arrogant playboy he had been before his time on the island. The usage of that nickname could not have been a slip-up. Instead, Oliver noticed the several WayneTech employees behind her. It dawned on Oliver that she was using the nickname as a way to show familiarity, an act designed to impress those that she worked with.

"That we do." Oliver replied with a smile. "What time is my meeting with Bruce?"

"In just a little over an hour." Felicity said as she turned and marched towards her car. "We'll be meeting with Mr. Wayne, CEO Rupert Stickley and CFO Lucius Fox."

"Why such an audience? I thought that Bruce and I were just going to talk about potential joint operations."

"Well, unfortunately Mr. Wayne has been unable to secure support from the Board to replace Mr. Stickley as CEO, although you didn't hear that from me." Felicity said as she stepped into the car with Oliver stiffly following her in. "So, Mr. Wayne is unable to discuss these potential joint operations, as you say, without also including Mr. Stickley and Mr. Fox."

"I see." Oliver said simply before noticing that Diggle had stepped in as the driver of their vehicle. "What are you doing?"

"Ask her." Diggle said shortly, eyeing Felicity

"Felicity?"

"I asked my normal driver to ride with one of the other vehicles. Fed him some story about wanting things to be like old times for a bit. I'm not 100% sure he bought it but he may just be dumb enough to."

"OK." Oliver replied before diving into business. "So what am I trying to get from Wayne in this meeting?"

"You'll be in the room with him for a couple hours. He's going to come at you over the top. He'll appear drunk in the middle of the day and repeatedly go up to the bar in his office for a drink. He's going to ask a lot of dumb questions and he's going to give you a ridiculous number of confused looks, all of which wouldn't be strange if..."

"If what?" Oliver questioned, not letting her off the hook.

"If I didn't have so much practice watching someone try and act like they don't know what's going on." Felicity said softly, looking Oliver directly in the eye. "Oliver, I spent years watching you trick every single person in Starling that you're an idiot despite being one of the smartest people I know and that's quite the compliment considering I went to MIT. It could very well be that Wayne is really just that big of an idiot but he just seems to try to hard to make it seem like he is."

"So if he's faking it, the question is why?" Diggle said from the front.

"Exactly." Felicity said quickly, barely breathing before continuing. "He's notoriously difficult to reach any time after he leaves the building, misses appointments and other events frequently and generally pisses off anyone he meets, although that may just be because he's one of the wealthiest men in the country and they're jealous. Or it could be because he's been listed one of the most beautiful men in the country for the past two years."

"As have I." Oliver muttered softly.

"Oh not everything is about you." Felicity shot back playfully. "But seriously does that sound like anyone you know?"

"It sounds like me."

"Exactly."

* * *

Almost an hour later, Oliver and company pulled into the executive lot at Wayne Tower, home of WayneTech. After Felicity waived her security pass and vouched for the presence of Oliver Queen and his driver, the three of them walked into the lobby and straight to the express elevator in almost the exact fashion that Oliver would have at QC but without the assistants chasing him the whole way.

After one of the fastest elevator trips Oliver could remember, the three of them exited onto the 114th floor. Wayne Tower, recently added to, was the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, an outright sign of the good fortunes of Bruce Wayne and WayneTech. In typical grandiose fashion, the entire floor acted as the offices of Rupert Stickley, Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne.

Today, as he had gotten the meeting with Oliver, they would be working out of the office of Bruce Wayne. When they walked in, Oliver was shocked. Even though Oliver knew he lived the life of the privileged, this office put every office at QC to shame. Considering Wayne was one of the wealthiest men in the world, it wasn't shocking but it was still remarkable to see just how elegant his office was.

Already waiting for them in the room were their guests, minus the one that Bruce really wished to talk to. Stepping forward, Felicity went to work.

"Mr. Stickley, Mr. Fox, this is my old friend, Oliver Queen."

"Mr. Queen." Stickley said shortly, a rather displeased look on his face, as he shook Oliver's hand.

"Oliver, good to have you come all the way from the opposite coast to visit us." Lucius greeted him warmly.

"It's good to be here." Oliver replied with a grin. "I'm certainly excited at the opportunity to throw some ideas around with a company such as yours."

"Well, actually, it's my company."

Ah, their guest: late as expected. Turning around, Oliver was greeted with the sight of the man himself: Bruce Wayne. Like Oliver, Bruce Wayne had one been suspected dead. Having returned to Gotham three years earlier, Wayne had been reluctant to return to his parents' company, instead choosing to make his living by appearing in the tabloids. To this day, no one knew where exactly Wayne had gone during his decade long sojourn overseas and despite the many requests for interviews, Wayne never addressed the issue publicly.

"Oliver, good to have you here in Gotham." Wayne said with a giant smile on his face before extending his hand. "Welcome."

"Thanks, Bruce." Oliver replied, clasping onto Wayne's hand for a firm handshake.

It was in this moment that Oliver realized that Felicity was definitely on to something. Firstly, Wayne had an insane kind of grip. Most of the handshakes that Oliver gave were by people who could barely get their hands around Oliver's and even if they did, their grip was pathetic. But even those with strong grip couldn't compare to the strength Oliver felt in this man's hand, save Slade Wilson.

The second thing that Oliver noticed was the roughness of the skin on Wayne's hand. When Oliver socialized with the other men in his social class, typically he dealt with pampered brats with hands smoother than polished marble while Oliver's hands resembled the consistency of sandpaper. Wayne's hands were also rough, possibly even tougher than his own.

Breaking apart, Oliver allowed Wayne to step away before he seated himself in the chair next to Felicity as Diggle made his place at the door. Without sitting, Wayne made his way to the bar where he busied himself making a drink while Stickley and Fox started talking. Focusing exclusively on Wayne, Oliver watched as he made his drink.

Having been a career partyer before the boat "accident," Oliver could spot a good bottle of whiskey from a mile away. Unfortunately for Wayne, the stuff he was drinking wasn't actually whiskey. Instead, it looked more like water with food coloring in it. So, the alcoholic owner of WayneTech didn't appear to actually be drinking.

Felicity had been right. There certainly was something strange about Bruce Wayne.

* * *

For nearly three hours, the group assembled discussed several different potential projects. During the whole ordeal, the only productive comments that Wayne seemed to make occurred entirely on accident with the best being a comment about a project that had been discussed almost an hour earlier. He had somehow forgotten that they had moved on to two other conversations before then. Amazingly, his comment made sense to the conversation for a second before everyone realized that he was just that far behind the conversation.

And through it all, Felicity still had a better running knowledge of QC's resources and operations than he did. Finally, the business was done and Stickley and Fox took off, leaving Felicity and Oliver with the enigmatic billionaire.

"So, Oliver, it is okay that I call you Oliver?"

"You've been calling me that for three hours, Bruce." Oliver replied, the act beginning to wear thin.

"Oh well then I suppose it's good that I asked for permission then." Wayne shot back, that same goofy grin on his face. "So, Oliver, what was the island like?"

Suddenly, a chill blew through the room.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Ollie. The famous party boy Oliver Queen lost at sea for five years, comes home and does exactly zero interviews on the subject? All he does is open a night club and then disappear for five months after his city was nearly destroyed by his mother."

"Is there a question in there, Bruce?" Oliver said, doing his best to keep a calm demeanor at the obvious change in mood.

"Not really. Nothing other than the original one."

"You seriously want to know what the island was like?"

"Of course!" Bruce said, leaning forward towards him. "Like I said, party boy gets lost an island for five years. How do you survive that?"

During the course of their more private conversation, as brief as it has been, Oliver had already seen a change in Bruce Wayne that he had not imagined possible when Felicity had contacted him. Felicity had always been a little paranoid so Oliver had done this partially out of an interest of being with her again.

The other half of him knew that when Felicity was paranoid, there was almost always a _very _good reason to be paranoid and that this definitely needed checking out. But the last two questions that Bruce had asked led Oliver to believe that something was very, _very _different about Bruce Wayne.

"Why don't you ask what you're really asking, Wayne?" Oliver growled, leaving no doubt that he knew about the man's act.

For a brief second, Wayne seemed to stall, that big, stupid grin on his face. Then, in almost a grotesque fashion, the smile broke, turning into a foul grimace.

"I'm asking you, Oliver Queen, how you learned to shoot a bow so well when you were on that island by yourself?"

"I knew it!"

If things hadn't been so tense in the room, Oliver might have laughed. Instead, all he could do was shift in his seat to stare at Felicity, who stood in front of her chair, pointing at Wayne accusingly.

"Excuse me?" Wayne asked, doing his best to retreat back into his billionaire persona and actually failing miserably.

"I knew you were him."

"Him?"

"You're the Batman." Felicity whispered.

"And you, Oliver Queen, are the Green Arrow." Bruce said confidently as he sat back in his chair.

For once, Oliver felt very exposed. Wayne was apparently something called The Bat-man. More importantly, he knew that he was The Arrow.

"Batman?" Oliver asked, during to Felicity.

Taking a deep breath, Felicity shifted into full-on nerd mode.

"About six months ago, dirty cops started showing up tied up all over Gotham with evidence of their "extra activities" tied to them. For nearly four months, no one had any idea who was doing it. Then, about eight weeks ago, someone got a tip that there was this really big battle going on at Axis Chemical between these organized crime figures and some mystery man dressed up in battle armor."

"Battle armor?" Oliver asked curiously.

"Black battle armor with a cape and cowl. Scared three gangsters completely speechless, which is remarkable considering how cocky those guys get sometime. Either way, cops show up and they confirm that there is a man dressed in black battle armor with a cowl and cape just destroying all of the gangsters. Anyway, once the cops got a hold of the gangsters, one of them coined the name 'Batman,' which I think is a strange choice but that's just how things roll sometimes."

"So, Batman?"

"Batman." Felicity answered softly before turning back to Wayne. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne. I mean, I'm not really that sorry but you are my boss so I feel like I should be sorry but he was my boss first and I'm still not really sure whether or not you're a good guy or whether you are planning on killing us."

Finally, Felicity took a breath.

"That was strange." Wayne muttered softly.

"What?" Oliver asked.

"She's never done that before."

"Really?"

For some reason, the thought that Wayne had never previously experienced her ramblings despite having worked for Wayne for nearly eighteen months gave Oliver a good feeling.

"Anyway, so that's how I knew you were the Batman."

"It's fine, Felicity." Wayne said, adopting a very relaxed personality that didn't seem to match with any of the attitudes he had previously had.

"No it's not." Oliver spoke softly. "I can tell. You don't spend four years tricking the whole world into believing that you're an idiot with being able to see the signs yourself. Firstly, you feel betrayed that Felicity figured it out. Secondly, you are now worried that someone else knows."

For a moment, Oliver wasn't sure if Bruce was going to answer at all. Then, his relaxed attitude changed back closer to that grimace, a look of such intensity Oliver wondered how it was possible.

"Of course I feel betrayed, Queen." Wayne barked out. "I had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that Felicity had left Starling just after her abduction because of a rift with you. Hence the reason I hired her. I knew that I would need someone like her and with her out of the Starling City market, she was fair game."

"Fair game?" Felicity whispered softly.

"Absolutely." Wayne growled menacingly. "This city needs to change and I'm the man to do it. So, whether she knew it or not, she was helping me. Fox knows about my little side project and was funneling ideas for me into her department. She would have it built and I would use it."

Oliver looked over at Felicity cautiously. The look of horror on her face was evident but beneath that, a look that only someone that her as well as he did would understand. That look was embarrassment. For Felicity, being the smartest person in the room when compared to everyone else combined was her way of defending herself. Seeing that she had been played was a very tough pill for her to take and she didn't appear to be taking it that well.

"Eventually, I would have invited her to join my crusade but I'm glad I didn't. I can't have someone like her around. Someone who would help someone else before they would help me. I especially couldn't have someone around me who would defend a murderer like you."

Oliver moved to leave, tired of listening to this blowhard continue his sermon, when he heard a crack, almost equivalent to a bullwhip, as Felicity slapped Wayne across the face. Staring at her, Oliver couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had seen her in many states: angry, sad, worried, nervous and embarrassed. But in all their years together, Oliver had never seen rage.

"How **dare **you call him that!? Oliver Queen may be a lot of things, some of them not great. But he is not a murderer! And you talk like you're any better! There are no reports of The Batman killing yet but I'm sure they're coming!"

Oliver couldn't have moved if he tried. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne was practicing every bit of self-restraint he had. Staring down at his employee, Oliver could almost see some kind of hatred towards the blonde computer genius.

"I. Do. Not. Kill! Period." Wayne barked, each word its own personal statement. "The Batman does not kill. Ever. On the other hand, The Vigilante, The Hood, whatever the hell you want to call him, has killed hundreds in Starling City."

"For good reasons! These are people that you can't leave on the street!"

**"THERE ARE NO GOOD REASONS!" **

This time, Oliver could move, racing in between the two of them before something bad happened. Unfortunately, this put him within inches of an irate Bruce Wayne. While he had no idea just how good Wayne was as a fighter, Oliver could imagine that disappearing for ten years could make you pretty good.

"Felicity, get out." Oliver stated firmly, not breaking eye contact with this dark knight in front of him.

"Ol-"

"Felicity, we will talk later."

"Talk all you want." Bruce roared softly. "Felicity Smoak, you are relieved of your position here at WayneTech. You have one hour to clear out your office and remove yourself from the premises. I will have security escort you."

"That won't be necessary." Oliver said shortly. "I will personally ensure we are out in time. It's obvious that we have a differing philosophy. So here's what's going to happen."

"You think you control how this works, do you?"

"I do, Wayne." Oliver said, stepping even closer to put almost no space between the two of them. "You forget: If you're serious about that whole "No killing ever" ideal, you're at a disadvantage."

"And that is?"

"If you threaten her or me or anyone else, I will not hesitate to put an arrow through your eye. You can ask Deathstroke about that."

With that, Oliver turned and put his arm around Felicity, placing his hand in the small of her back. He could feel her jump slightly at the contact.

"So, with that, here's how this will work: You are here, I am there. If you have an issue with someone in Starling, you contact me, I take care of it. If I have an issue with someone here, I contact you, you take care of it."

"I'm just supposed to agree with this?"

"Yes." Oliver said with a smirk. "I don't trust you, Wayne, and you certainly don't trust me. So, you stay out of my city."

Having said his piece, Oliver applied just the smallest amount of pressure to Felicity's back, pushing her along and out of the office of Bruce Wayne.

* * *

Forty minutes later, Oliver, Felicity and Diggle reached the car with as much of Felicity's belongings as they could collect. Per her contract with WayneTech, all of her projects were personal property until pushed into production. Therefore, there were crates of blueprints and folders, things too sensitive to be saved on any hard drive. Felicity's contract wasn't that rare but Wayne had apparently overextended his hand where she was concerned. Now, it was distinctly possible that something he wanted built would never seen production in Gotham City.

Felicity lived in a rather simple house in a small suburb of Gotham City, just a twenty minute drive from Wayne Tower. When they arrived, they spent about fifteen minutes getting all of the files and boxes into her house before sitting down in the living room.

As he sat, Oliver rubbed his eyes wearily before noticing that Felicity had sat on the couch next to him.

"Well, you were definitely right." Oliver said softly.

"I'm so sorry, Oliver." Felicity begged, placing her hand on his upper arm, eliciting a small chill from him. "I had my suspicions but I never thought that I would be so..."

"Right?" Diggle finished.

"Exactly."

"Felicity, the times you are wrong are few and far between. I just wish you would have let me know your real suspicions. I went in there almost unarmed."

"Almost?" Felicity asked curiously.

Slowly, Oliver pulled a small knife from its holster in the back of his pants along with a small computerized device.

"Bounces the metal detectors single away from me." Oliver said simply. "I can get basically anything through a metal detector this way."

"Very nice. Who made it?" Felicity asked, her eyes dancing as she examined the device.

"Sara built it with specs of some projects that you left on our server."

"Really? It's very impressive since I didn't leave a complete blueprint."

"Yeah, you'll have to ask her about that."

"I will the next time I see her."

"Speaking of that-"

"Oliver."

The way she said his name made him want to melt away. In just a single word, he could see all the pain that he had caused her appear as if it had just happened yesterday.

"Oliver," she repeated. "I can't."

"You can't what?" Oliver countered. "I'm not asking you to return to the Foundry. Not yet anyway. I'm hoping that you'll want to eventually, even if it's just part time."

"You can't do what we do part-time." Felicity said meaningfully.

"You mean what _we _do." Oliver said, pointing at Diggle and himself. Taking a deep breath, Oliver stopped himself from continuing. He didn't like where this conversation was going to go.

Changing the subject, Oliver spoke again.

"What will you do now?"

"Well, now that I am the disgraced former Director of Computer Design and Research of WayneTech, I'm basically unhireable at the level that I was used to work at. I'll have to go back to being just an IT director or something."

"You're not unhireable. Not for me."

When she realized what he was talking about, Felicity quickly adopted a look of anger and shook her head.

"Absolutely not. I'm not taking your charity, Oliver."

"It's not charity." Oliver said firmly. "While I was coming out here to check out Wayne, I was also coming to recruit you back to QC. We have a ton of new projects on the horizon and no one I trust to run them. I would like you to come back to Starling and QC."

"And you?"

Oliver was starting to grind against her new-found ability to push his buttons. Settling himself in, he decided honesty was the best policy.

"Yes, Felicity, I miss you." Oliver admitted, very aware that Diggle was still in the room. "Starling City hasn't been the same as you left. But don't for a minute think that's why I'm offering you this job. QC needs you, Felicity. There's no one better at what you do than you and if QC is going to compete against LexTech and WayneTech, we need you."

"What's the actual position?" Felicity asked, sounding moderately interesting. Seeing that interest, Oliver dove in.

"There are two potential positions. The first is Director of the Integrated Technologies department. Basically, you would be the project leader on all of our government contracts. The second is...slightly different."

"Different?"

"The second is a newly created position. Just for you, I might add. Your official title would be Technological Director of Governmental Affairs. Your actual job would be the handling of any "black" projects."

"Off-the-books stuff?" Felicity asked. "Is it legal?"

"Yes and no. I will admit that there will occasionally be things designed and constructed in that department for my own personal use. But mostly, it is Top Secret government level projects. The bonus for this position is that there is only one person you answer to."

"You." Felicity replied. "What makes you think that's a bonus?"

"Because I trust you." Oliver shot back confidently. "And because I trust you, you will have almost completely free reign over the department, provided I get weekly reports on the progress of all projects."

Once Oliver was done speaking, he could see the gears working in Felicity's head. At a bare minimum, Oliver was glad that she was even considering it. For nearly a minute, the three of them sat in silence as Oliver waited for her answer. Suddenly, Felicity looked up, a rather stoic look on her face.

"I need to be told about any projects you intend to use for your nightly activities before the project is started."

"Does that mean you'll do it?" Oliver asked tentatively.

"I'm not done, Oliver." Felicity said with a smile. "I report only to you. Anything that the Board needs to know, you inform them."

"Done."

"Also, I want Sara with me at all times."

"What?" Oliver asked in shock. "Sara is the head of security."

"Well, that's new." Felicity said with a smile. "Then here's what I would like: move my office near her office. I would like to be near Sara. Regardless of whether I return to the Foundry someday, my boss and close friend is Oliver Queen, renowned troublemaker. While I have gotten better, I'm not going to be able to take on armed assassins by myself so I want Sara to be like Diggle is for you."

"I'll talk to her. I'm sure it won't be a big deal." Oliver said, grinning from ear to ear. "You know I never imagined that you would say yes this quickly."

"Let me reiterate, Oliver: I am not returning to the Foundry. You may need my help on occasion and in those cases, I will do my best to provide it but I'm not sitting down in that bunker all night every night."

"I understand, Felicity, I'm just glad you're coming home."

"Me too." Felicity replied, a small smile appearing on her face.

* * *

Five days later, Oliver sat in the same boardroom that he had before he left with Felicity to his right, waiting for Isabel to start the meeting. From the moment that Felicity had walked into the room, Oliver had been quite amused to see that Isabel was doing her best to melt Felicity with her eyes, a trait that was quite possible for Isabel to have.

"So, Mr. Queen, it seems that you were successful in your quest to bring Ms. Smoak back to QC. Welcome back, Ms. Smoak."

"Thank you, Isabel." Felicity said, a small smirk on her face.

"I was successful. Felicity has agreed to join QC as the Technological Director of Governmental Affairs. Now, per her request, she will not be making many reports to the Board. Instead, as he only immediate superior, I will be making reports for her, allowing more time to continue work."

"Of course." Isabel said dismissively. "Now, onto important business, what is the state of our facilities in Gotham City?"

Before Oliver could answer, Felicity jumped down Isabel's throat. Obviously, she was ready to show how capable she was.

"Most of the facilities in Gotham City remain top of the line. However, it is the human element that is lacking. Many of those placed in charge have allowed their distance from Starling encourage a lackadaisical atmosphere."

"Ms. Smoak, upon accepting the job offer, went on the tours with me." Oliver continued. "Her expertise was well received by the staff there. However, after reviewing their performance, Felicity does have a number of suggestions. These include but are not limited to a complete overhaul of management, a more direct line of influence from my office to Gotham and several small technological advancements which should save us a significant amount of money."

Apparently, with these "suggestions," Isabel had had more than enough.

"This is all very nice and we will take it under advisement." Isabel said before obviously trying to continue on with the meeting.

"No, you won't." Oliver replied, his firmest CEO voice coming out.

"Excuse me?"

"These are not truly suggestions, Isabel. How many of you went to MIT? How many of you literally invented QC's software defense network? Felicity Smoak is easily the most intelligent person I know and if she says that these are things that will make an improvement on our holdings in Gotham City, then that's what will happen."

"She is a computer genius, maybe." Isabel shot back. "But last I checked, she had less business experience than anyone at this table."

"True." Oliver answered, a smile actually creeping onto his face. "However, before I took sole possession of this company, we were stuck selling at only $55 per share. But, once I gained complete control and started making my own decisions, we are now selling at nearly double that price!"

"Anyone could have made those decisions, Mr. Queen." Isabel retorted. "They were surefire projects."

"Really? The virus protection network that you told me wouldn't work? The one that could finance computer research for nearly fifty years? That one? Or what about the military defense net? That anti-missile network that would never make it to prototype stage? I'm fairly certain that there is now NO WAY for any ICBM to hit any part of the continental United States now, effectively eliminating foreign nuclear threat to close range detonation, a much more difficult concept."

"You act as though you had anything to do with that."

"I went against the Board's requests on both of those matters!" Oliver roared. "You told me they were too risky, that they would never work. Now, QC has never been in a better place and that was without Felicity! Now that I have someone who actually understands the computer jargon that the tech people spit at me, we'll be able to take QC to places we had never dreamed of."

"You really believe that?" Felicity whispered softly to him.

"Of course I do." Oliver answered before turning back to the rest of the Board. "Felicity will spend two weeks establishing her work here before spending six weeks in Gotham, reformatting the staff and technology of the Gotham branch. Then, she will return to Starling and we can really get down to work."

Everyone in the room seemed shocked at the confidence that Oliver delivered this information with. In the past, Oliver may have asked for permission. Now, he was informing the Board of his intentions. Noticing their shock, Oliver spoke again.

"You forget that you all started somewhere too. Four years as CEO of one of the world's largest corporation is a pretty good crash course in business."

Standing up, Oliver buttoned his jacket before addressing the board again.

"I will be escorting Felicity to her office. Please, continue this meeting without me."

* * *

After showing Felicity to her new office, the pair of them, along with Diggle and Sara, made their way to Oliver's alternate penthouse. Oliver rarely used this apartment but after Diggle and Sara had torched his apartment to cover his injuries, the use of it became necessary. It was actually much nicer than his regular apartment but Oliver had long outgrown extravagant taste, preferring something significantly more simple.

So, when Oliver walked into the elegant abode, he had to suppress a shudder at the amount of money spent on this place. While his other apartment would have been considered elegant, if a bit aged, this one, which numerous living magazines had already examined, would have been called "chic" and "modern." Even though Oliver had been raised with money, he had preferred the more classic style of Queen Mansion to the modern style that was expected of the average CEO. So, to perpetuate this expectation, he had bought this place and had hardly stepped foot into it since.

Once he was inside, Oliver quickly threw the coat that he had worn in the chilly spring air onto the arm of the couch. Speaking, Oliver activated the apartment's media centers.

"House, TV on." Oliver said softly.

Instantly, the giant TV mounted to the wall turned on and tuned to the news, which was mid-broadcast.

_"...the manhunt, led by FBI Special Agent Catalina Flores, focuses on the Gotham City vigilante known as The Batman. In the last six months, information attributed to The Batman has led to the arrest of Crime Bosses Carmine Falcone, Salvatore Maroni and Tony Zucco along with former Police Commissioner Gillian Loeb and several high-ranking detectives with the department."_

"Well, we never had the FBI after us at least." Felicity muttered softly.

"No, instead we were forced to work with Waller." Diggle growled, memories of their first encounter with the Suicide Squad floating into his head.

"Either way, we've worked our way into a casual relationship with Waller and she keeps organizations like the FBI off our back." Oliver said quietly, closing his eyes as he spoke. Oliver had slept sparsely during his trip to Gotham and back and the pain in his back still kept him awake a night. As a result, Oliver was more exhausted than he could remember.

Felicity must have noticed because she placed a gentle hand on his knee, squeezing shortly before letting go.

"You ok?" Felicity asked simply.

"Just in pain." Oliver admitted. "My back is starting to peel and the skin is very raw."

"Gross."

_"In other news, LexTech announced plans to offer stocks publicly for the first time at the end of the month. As a result, the company will be rebranded as LexCorps with new divisions in bioscience, pharmaceuticals and military weaponry."_

"Just great." Oliver replied. "Just when things looked to be settling in at work."

_"But, the most important announcement is that LexCorps will be looking to cross the continental United States, announcing plans to open a second branch of LexCorps in Starling City, putting it in direct competition with Oliver Queen's Queen Consolidated."_

"Of course, someone else looking to poach on the rebuilding of Starling after Slade's attack." Sara whispered almost to herself.

"Great. As if Wayne being The Batman wasn't bad enough. Now, I'm going to have to deal with Lex Luthor working in my backyard." Oliver answered.

"We need to make sure that things are secure here and we need to have a big announcement. Soon." Felicity replied. "I'm delaying my trip to Gotham. Before I go, we're announcing something large to coincide with the day after LexCorp's public offering."

"Are you sure? You were going to get your stuff when you went back. Plus, I thought you couldn't get yourself a place until you closed your Gotham accounts."

"Not a big deal. I'll just go live with Thea and Roy in the mansion."

"I'll let them know you're coming." Oliver replied with a smile, knowing that it would be nice to have Felicity back in town full time.

"Thanks." Felicity said as she stood up. "I'm going to go get my stuff from my hotel room and then make my way over there."

"I'm texting Thea right now."

"Good." Felicity said before leaning in and kissing Oliver on the cheek. "I'll see you later. Bye, John. Bye, Sara."

"Bye." Both Sara and Diggle said in unison.

Watching as she left, all Oliver could feel was the strange heat on his cheek. Once she was out of sight, Oliver raised his hand to touch the place where her lips had touched his face.

"Earth to Ollie." Sara said, a smirk on his face.

"Oh, we've lost him." Diggle added, sharing the same smirk that Sara's face held.

"No, you haven't." Oliver replied absentmindedly. "Did we ever find Prometheus?"

"Sure did." Diggle said, his grin growing larger. "I knocked him out and then called Amanda in."

"Good."

With Oliver out of commission for the next few days, there was nothing to do but wait around. Later that evening, Oliver intended to drive to the Foundry and work on some open cases. But for the rest of the afternoon, he was content to simply sit around the apartment and watch the news with two of his oldest friend.

As he did, his mind wandered to Felicity. While she hadn't rejoined his crusade to better Starling, she had returned home. Oliver had to admit that even if she never returned to the Foundry having her around was better than her being 3,000 miles away in the constant presence of that arrogant son of a bitch, Bruce Wayne.

With a content smile, one fueled by Felicity's return, Oliver dozed off to sleep there in his living room, finally able to really sleep.


	4. III: Merlyn

**Author's Notes: OK, so the recent release of a new episode has changed how I have to approach this. This story is officially AU after Birds of Prey. After a day of thinking, I couldn't come up with a way to bring Isabel back in without some big changes to the character. So, eventually, you'll get my version of how Season 2 ended but for right now, we're moving forward as if the episode "Deathstroke" did not exist.**

**Although things may not be that different for Isabel...**

**Also, for a few reviewers, the version of Bruce Wayne/Batman I'm using is similar to his appearance in Frank Miller's All-Star Batman. Very self-centered, almost too confident in his ability and kind of nuts (not in a good way). So, while it may appear that he's acting out of character for most versions of Batman, this one is right in line with that kind of attitude.**

* * *

It was almost four o'clock in the morning, six days after his return to Starling, during Oliver's last run of The Glades when he got the call.

"Diggle?" Oliver asked, stopping to catch his breath and answer his communicator.

_"Call just came over the police scanner. Demeter Lantos, owner/operator of Lantos Security and one of the richest men in the city, was found dead in his mansion tonight."_

"Why is that my concern?"

_"He was found with two black arrows sticking out of his chest."_

The second the words were out of Diggle's mouth, his heart stopped.

"Did you say black arrows?"

_"I did." _Diggle replied shortly. _"You do know what that means, right?"_

"It means Merlyn. We haven't heard anything from him since he left Starling. Why now?"

_"I have no idea but we need to move on it before he has a chance to do something else."_

"Agreed." Oliver said before switching his communicator over to Sara and Roy's line. "Return to base."

_"Why?" _Roy asked in confusion.

"Diggle, just called me. Demeter Lantos was found with two black arrows in him."

_"Black arrows? Like Merlyn?" _Sara asked softly.

"Exactly like Merlyn." Oliver replied. "So, return to base."

_"Got it." _Roy replied before cutting his comm with Sara following shortly thereafter.

Quickly, Oliver raced down the side of the building he was on and got to his jet black motorcycle. As the engine burst to life, all Oliver could think of was Malcolm Merlyn. Why had he chosen now to return? If it really was him, what was his purpose?

Within minutes, Oliver pulled into the secret garage entrance that he had installed into the ArrowCave just a few months earlier. Now, he was able to dismount his bike and being changing into his regular attire in privacy without having to sneak back into his own hideout. As he removed his mask, Sara and Roy quickly entered. After shutting their own bikes down, they each removed their own respective masks.

"So, I get that Merlyn is back in town." Roy said as the three of them entered the ArrowCave proper with Diggle manning the computers. "But why pull us off the streets?"

"Because it's been three years since anyone as seen The Dark Archer. We don't need any sightings of Green Arrow or his team anywhere near downtown on the night that some billionaire got shot in the chest with a couple of arrows."

"Two billionaires." Diggle said shortly. "Calista Silvia fell off the top of her own penthouse apartment onto a passing taxi. She had four black arrows sticking out of her."

"Jesus." Roy muttered softly.

"Yeah, but that's not the worst part." Diggle replied.

"What could be worse than two billionaires killed with black arrows within an hour of each other." Sara asked curiously.

"They were both on the List."

Suddenly, everyone in the room turned to Oliver.

"Excuse me?" Roy asked.

"Both Demeter Lantos and Calista Silvia were on the List of names that my father gave me."

For nearly thirty seconds, the others were completely silent before Diggle delivered his news.

"They also put up money for Tempest, the same organization that Moira gave money to hide the remains of the Queen's Gambit."

"So, Tempest was what they called their group." Roy said firmly. "They used that as a codename for their work with The Undertaking."

"This is all too much coincidence." Oliver replied, nodding his head in agreement. "I believe that Merlyn is back in town."

"Why? What could he be after now? Thea knows about him and has already said that she doesn't give a shit."

"I don't know, Roy." Oliver answered softly. "But I believe I have a trip to Central City in my future."

"What does Barry have to do with this?" Diggle asked.

"Not Barry." Sara replied cautiously. "Moira."

* * *

In the months after Oliver's war with Slade, his relationship with Moira did not improve. In fact, if at all possible, it got worse. When Thea finally managed to put two and two together, Thea suddenly understood the tension that Oliver had lived with for the last few months. While his sister had initially been angry with him for not telling her, she understood why he hadn't told her, especially once she found out what he and Roy did at night.

Once Thea knew, Oliver decided that keeping up with appearances no longer mattered. In a stunning announcement just weeks after his mother's inauguration as Starling City's mayor, Oliver revealed his intention to back another candidate if and when a recall election occurred. After Queen Consolidated had spent a fortune cleaning up the Glades, there was no one in Starling City with a higher star power than Oliver Queen.

So, when the opportunity arose one year later in the form of a city-wide petition to remove Moira Queen as mayor, Oliver struck. Not only did he lead the charge for a new candidate, he picked someone that he knew would be viewed as a superior candidate: Adam Donner, the current District Attorney of Starling City. Not only did Donner have a sterling public record, plus a degree in economics from Starling State University, but he had also been the prosecuting attorney in Moira Queen's trial.

While he hadn't succeeded in getting her put behind bars, the imagery of Moira Queen on the stand was all they needed. Shown throughout his brief campaign, Donner won in a landslide. Less than a month later, he was inaugurated. Within a week, Moira packed up and purchased a new house in Central City.

Oliver hadn't seen or spoke to her since.

Now, he was pulling into the driveway of the fairly lavish house she had moved into. The rumor mill around Moira Queen in Central City was surprising. Despite being overwhelmingly the wealthiest person in the city, she was almost never seen. To be honest, Oliver was surprised she remained in the country. Some part of her probably wanted to remain close to Oliver and Thea and staying the country assured that she would hear about her wildly successful children on the national news.

As Oliver pulled in, he noticed that the house was very much styled similarly to Queen Mansion. Oliver knew that couldn't be an accident but instead a reminder of home and of what (in Oliver's opinion) she had tried to destroy with her deceit.

Putting the car in park, Oliver stepped out and quickly approached the front door. Taking a deep breath to collect himself, Oliver rang the doorbell. For what seemed like hours, Oliver waited. And waited.

And waited.

Finally, Oliver heard a bustle as the sound of numerous locks, both rudimentary and electronic, were released. Once Oliver heard the last lock pop, the door swung open and Oliver came face to face with his mother for the first time in over a year.

For several seconds, both of them stared at each other before Oliver broke the silence.

"I've never known you to open your own doors." Oliver muttered condescendingly.

"I never knew you cared so much about your mother that you would fly halfway across the county to see her." Moira fired back.

"I don't." Oliver replied shortly, knowing that it would cut her deep. For whatever reason, since the news of Thea's true father came out, Oliver couldn't restrain himself privately around this woman. Whenever it was just the two of them, Oliver did everything he could to cause her as much pain as possible.

"Then why are you here?" Moira asked curly.

"Business." Oliver replied simply.

"Business?" Moira scoffed. "I hear business at Queen Consolidated is booming. What could you possibly want with me?"

"Nothing." Oliver said with a smart smile. "If I had that a question on that kind of business, I would go to Walter. This is _another _kind of business."

For a second, Moira looked at Oliver, a stunned look on her face. For years, Oliver knew that Moira assumed that he had returned to Starling City just as selfish and uncaring as he had been. It simply manifested itself differently. Then, Oliver could tell that she slowly put the pieces together. The disappearing acts, the poor excuses and the visibly tired CEO of Queen Consolidated all added up to something that was not at all the Oliver Queen she remembered.

While they had never discussed it, Oliver was fairly certain that his mother was well aware of how he spent his nights.

"Well, do come in then." Moira said, stepping aside and letting Oliver pass.

As Oliver walked inside, he noticed that the similarities to Queen Mansion didn't stay simply on the outside. The entrance hall was almost identically styled to the one at Queen Mansion. Looking around, Oliver noticed that some of the art that had previously been displayed at his own home now hung here, his own mother's way of bringing Starling City with her.

Without uttering a single word, Moira led Oliver to the closest study, motioning for him to sit. Doing as instructed, Oliver sat.

"A drink?" Moira asked succinctly.

"No. I want this to be brief." Oliver replied.

"Then, by all means, begin."

"Fine. When was the last time you heard from Malcolm Merlyn?"

"Excuse me?" Moira asked, obviously surprised.

"It's not a trick question, Mother." Oliver barked. "When was the last time you heard from Merlyn?"

"The last time I saw Malcolm was when he came attempting to claim Thea. Then, I told him about my contact with Ra's al Ghul and he left and I haven't seen him since."

"I didn't ask when the last time you saw him. I asked you when you had _spoke _to him last."

Surprisingly, Oliver could tell that this question threw her off. In his time as The Green Arrow, Oliver had become much better at reading and simply knowing people. Knowing his mother as he did, Oliver could tell based on how she worded her answer that there was information she was omitting.

Now, Oliver was better equipped to call her out on it.

"W-why?"

"Because two people in Starling were murdered with black arrows."

"It could be a copycat." Moira said simply.

"Both of them were in Tempest."

At the mention of her former criminal organization, Moira Queen noticeabely fell apart. Instantly, she began looking around the room as if she were looking for an escape. Moving quickly, Oliver offered her no time to think about any of that.

"Talk!" Oliver shouted, causing his mother to flinch in fear. "I know you've heard from Merlyn! Now tell me!"

"OK!" Moira screeched. "I heard from him six months ago. He had returned to Nanda Parbat."

"Why did he return and why did he call you?"

"He calls me occasionally still." Moira cried, tears streaming down her face. "I think it's his way of taunting me, letting me know that he's still out there."

"And why did he return to Nanda Parbat? According to you, he was released from The League of Assassins."

"He was." Moira confirmed, nodding sloppily. "However, his actions in Starling City angered Ra's and he started chasing after Malcolm. Malcolm returned to curry favor with Ra's and apparently succeeded. He said that he was there to make Ra's happy but that he had also found family there."

"Family?"

"Merlyn talks in riddles." Moira said dismissively. "He was probably just saying that he had found what he was looking for, if he was looking for anything."

"You don't think it's strange for a man who came back from the death to say that he found family!"

"No. Why would I?"

"I don't know." Oliver admitted harshly. "Maybe he was looking at ways to try and bring Tommy or Rebecca back to life."

"Is that even possible?"

"We thought Merlyn himself was dead, didn't we? Who's to say there isn't something out there that could bring people back from the dead." Oliver posed before thinking aloud to himself. "Maybe he really was dead."

"What?"

"Well, Merlyn basically told you that he had faked his death but uh-The Arrow was there when he died." Oliver said, doing his best to cover his near slip.

"How do you know that?" Moira asked softly.

"Felicity Smoak used to work with The Arrow before her abduction. She told me on one of my more curious days that it had been The Green Arrow who had killed him. Now, that guy knew how to kill. You would think he would know the difference between dead and faking it."

"You would think so." Moira replied, a very curious look on her face.

"But what if he really was dead but through some kind of unknown magic or chemical..."

Just as he spoke, Oliver realized what he was saying.

Some kind of chemical, something with untold ability, something of an Asian origin.

To Oliver, that sounded exactly like the Mirakuru.

"Were there people in Tempest that were unfailingly loyal to Merlyn?"

"Yes. There were several."

"Name them." Oliver commanded.

"Well, there was Samuel Thompson, Jed Kyle, Demeter Lantos-"

"And Catalina Silvia?"

"Yes." Moira answered, very confused. "How did you know?"

"Turn on the news."

Standing up, Oliver quickly turned and walked out of the room.

"Oliver, where are you going?" Moira shouted, following him out of the room and back into the entrance hall.

"I have work to do, Mother." Oliver replied shortly before turning. "Thank you for the help."

That said, Oliver turned and marched out of the door. Once he was safely away from the house, Oliver called Sara.

"I'll be back in Starling City in four hours. Assemble the team in the ArrowCave then. I think we may have ourselves a very big problem."

_"What?"_ Sara asked.

"The Mirakruru. What else?"

* * *

Walking into the ArrowCave, Oliver was pleased to see everyone there plus one pleasant surprise. As Oliver approached Felicity, she smiled slightly.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked, the question bursting out of him before he could think about it.

"And I thought you would be happy to see me." Felicity said, a small amount of sadness in her voice.

"I am." Oliver admitted. "Just surprised."

"If there's something to do with the Mirakuru, then we need all hands on deck." Felicity informed him. "Which means you need Diggle in the field with you, not working a computer or driving the getaway car. So, when they called me, I answered."

"Thanks." Oliver said, a small grin on his face before it quickly vanished. Turning in place, Oliver informed them of the content of his conversation with his mother before concluding it.

"I believe that the Mirakuru has another alternative use."

"You think that it can bring people back from the dead?" Sara asked.

"I do." Oliver admitted. "Think about its properties in a living host. It restores cells at an alarming rate, creating muscles that form beyond normal limits. This leads to increased strength, stamina, even brain function. Now, if you're already dead, if it posses the ability to jump start the system, why couldn't it bring you back to the way you were?"

"What about the insanity?" Felicity asked.

"Well, Merlyn was plenty crazy before he died." Diggle replied.

"True." Oliver added, a smile on his face. "However, it is simply returning your body to the way it was. But, when it is present in a living host, it takes your body passed the point of control. When you breach that point, that's when the insanity kicks in."

Looking around the room, Oliver could see that they all appeared to be in some state of understanding.

"Now, before we get to nuts here, know that this is simply a theory."

"A good one." Felicity countered. "There are chemicals in the Mirakuru that we can't even identify. It's quite possible that something in there would kick start the heart again."

"The only issue I have is that if you're assuming Merlyn got it through The League." Sara said shortly. "The League has been around for almost 300 years for as long as we can find records on them."

"So?" Roy asked.

"The Mirakuru was created by the Japanese during World War II, only eighty years ago."

"Supposedly." Oliver replied. "Who's to say that there was a member of The League working for the Japanese and they simply introduced it to them, masking it as an invention of the Japanese to avoid suspicion."

"This is all speculation." Felicity said shortly. "What we need is another sample of the Mirakuru. Without it, we can't know its real properties."

"That's the other issues, Oliver." Diggle added. "As far as we know, all samples of the Mirakuru have been destroyed with Wilson and Blood two years ago."

"Assuming Wilson is actually dead."

"Which we do seriously need to question since he came back from an arrow in his eye." Oliver said.

"Yeah, an arrow in the eye and being dropped out of an airplane from 80,000 feet onto the Sahara is another thing." Roy replied.

"We could try it with you." Sara muttered, a grin on her face.

"Actually, we're going to need to draw some more of your blood, Roy. See if we can't get some idea from your blood."

"Haven't we done this before?" Roy complained.

"Yes, but that was before I worked for WayneTech and had much better equipment for it." Felicity said, a grin on her face.

"I'll help." Sara replied, moving next to Felicity.

"Fine. Let's get this over with."

* * *

Two hours later, Felicity and Sara poured over the final results of Roy's bloodwork. Now, every member of Team Arrow, Felicity included, kept massive amounts of blood for insurance purposes, in case someone was shot or stabbed as was a frequent possibility in their line of work. When Oliver asked why they couldn't use that, Felicity replied with something about them wanting a fresh specimen so they could utilize as much of the Mirakuru as they could.

Personally, Oliver thought that neither Felicity or Sara minded seeing Roy with his shirt off but he kept that comment to himself.

"So what do we have?"

"We can't be certain." Felicity said, qualifying whatever result she had gotten. "However, it does appear that there could be certain qualities of the Mirakuru that could potentially revitalize dead flesh."

"So we basically have no idea." Diggle said with a grin.

"Correct." Sara answered, a concerned look on her face. "The only way to know for certain is to obtain a pure sample and we don't know of any that exist anymore."

"Unless we want to make a trip to Asia and break into The League's headquarters." Oliver replied, mostly joking.

"Absolutely not." Sara shot back, fear in her eyes. "Even as good as we are, there are hundreds of members of the League. There's no way we make it out alive."

"It was mostly a joke, Sara."

"Well, good." Sara mumbled to herself. "So what do we do now?"

"Nothing." Oliver replied downtroddenly. "There's nothing we can do. We don't know enough about the Mirakuru, we can't confirm Merlyn's location and we don't have the ability to obtain a pure sample of the Mirakuru to confirm our suspicions."

"There is one thing we could do." Felicity whispered softly.

As Oliver turned to her, he could tell that even she hated whatever her idea was. There was a look of apprehension that Felicity rarely bore and that alone worried Oliver.

"What?" Oliver whispered.

"You thought that the Mirakuru may not have been for him, right?" Felicity asked. "You mentioned Tommy and Rebecca."

"Yeah, so what?" Oliver replied, not liking where this was going.

"Well, we need to check their grave sites. Merlyn may have had them moved at some point if he thought that the Mirakuru could bring them back to life."

Oliver's suspicion had been right. He _hated _this idea. The thought of disturbing the resting place of his best friend was already destroying him inside. However, he also knew that Felicity was right. They did need to check because if the bodies were gone, then that opened up a whole new can of worms.

"OK." Oliver choked out.

"What?" Diggle fired.

"She's right." Oliver admitted. "We have to come up with a cover story to exhume the bodies."

"I think I have an idea."

* * *

_"...reports say that Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated, has requested the bodies of Rebecca and Thomas Merlyn be moved from their current resting place to the family plots at Queen Mansion, alongside the memorial site for former QC CEO Robert Queen, Oliver Queen's father who died at sea after the crash of the Queen's Gambit eight years ago. No one is quite sure why Mr. Queen chose now to make the request but per our sources, the request should be honored."_

Oliver wasn't surprised that people were curious about why he chose now to move the Merlyn family graves. So, the next day, he released a statement of his own.

_"Thomas, or Tommy as my family called him, was the closest thing to a brother that I ever had. After his mother's death, Malcolm Merlyn, the man we know to have led The Undertaking, left Tommy alone for nearly two years. During those years, Tommy became just as much my family as my own blood relatives. Now, Tommy lies in the middle of a public cemetery with no friends or family nearby because of the sale of all of Malcolm Merlyn's assets to repay the city. For quite a while, I've discussed with my sister, who was as close to Tommy as I was, moving Tommy's grave to Queen Mansion but it never seemed like the right time. But now, as we look back on the anniversary of The Undertaking, no time seems better."_

Watching himself on the news was strange but over the years as his public influence grew, Oliver had gotten used to it.

_"Because of Malcolm's time away, Tommy once told me that my own father felt more like a father to him than his own. So, this request simply comes as a way to bring Tommy, and in turn Rebecca, back to the family that he felt was his own."_

The act, while not really an act at all, had worked as the vehicles delivering the coffins of Thomas and Rebecca Merlyn pulled into the drive at Queen Mansion.

"Are you going to tell me what this is really about?" Thea asked softly as the pair of them watched the vehicles make their way up the long drive.

"The two CEOs that were killed last week were both on Dad's list." Oliver answered. "We think that Merlyn is operating back in Starling. We also have theories about the Mirakuru being able to be used as a way to bring people back from the dead."

"People like Tommy or Rebecca." Thea offered.

"Yes." Oliver answered. "Plus, I'm also moving a friend back home."

"Or a brother, right?"

Finally, the two black hearses pulled up. For the next hour, the men with the hearses installed the equipment that would lower the two coffins into the graves that had been dug next to Robert's memorial. However, Oliver asked the men (telling them they would double their pay) if they would back off for a few minutes so that the family could have a few moments alone.

Once the men were out of site, Diggle, Felicity and Sara raced out of the house, joining Roy, Oliver and Thea at the gravesite. Working quickly, Roy and Diggle pried the top of Tommy's coffin off.

To say that the contents were startling was a severe understatement.

"Oh my god." Felicity whispered, her hand covering his mouth in shock.

"This can't be right." Oliver muttered, stepping closer.

But it was right. Despite their wishes, there was no mistaking that face. Laying in the coffin was none other than Malcolm Merlyn, quite clearly dead. The body appeared relatively fresh as almost no decomposition had taken place. This means that sometime in the last six months, Malcolm Merlyn had been killed and placed in his son's coffin.

"How the hell is this possible?" Diggle questioned softly.

"Open the other one." Oliver grunted.

Moving as quickly as possible, Diggle and Roy opened the other one. This one was exactly as advertised, holding the obviously decaying remains of Rebecca Merlyn.

With this discovery, there was only one question that could be asked.

"Where is Tommy's body?" Thea asked in awe.

* * *

Two days later, after nearly destroying the ArrowCave and the remote lab he had set up in the basement of Queen Mansion, Oliver still hadn't slept and was angrier than he could ever remember being.

Sitting around him, looking equally as bleary was the rest of Team Arrow, Felicity and Thea included, completely stumped.

"Maybe it's a clone?" Roy suggested, a tired grin on his face.

"Shut up, Roy." Thea growled.

Over the past two days, Thea had been nearly as upset as Oliver had been, if not more. Oliver had forgotten that during his five years on the island, the pair of them had frequently interacted, probably forming a bond as two people that had both lost someone very close to them. So, it made sense for Thea to be on edge.

"Thea." Oliver scolded softly. "There has to be some kind of explanation."

"Ollie, we've spent two days skipping work and classes floating around all kind of ideas and nothing is making any sense." Sara replied. "Tommy's body is missing, Malcolm Merlyn is dead and we're no closer to having any idea of what's going on with a potential Dark Archer sighting than we were a week ago."

"I know. There just has to be something."

"Well, there could be one thing." Felicity whispered.

Over the past two days, Felicity had hardly said anything. He knew that she had known Tommy less than anyone in the room other than Roy so maybe that was some part of it. However, Oliver's real guess as to why she had been so quiet was that she felt out of place. She hadn't been a part of this group for over two years and still didn't consider herself a full-time member, even if her recent perfect attendance said otherwise.

"What is it?" Oliver asked, being as gentle as possible.

"Could Tommy be the Dark Archer?"

Little did Felicity know but that question offered significantly more questions than any answer they could have provided. It was possible, Oliver had to admit. However, if he was, then why? If Tommy was alive, why hadn't he told Oliver? Why hadn't he returned to Starling if he was alive? But as Oliver asked these questions, he realized that the answers to these questions could be frightening.

"You're right." Oliver admitted as Thea looked at him in shock. "It's possible! We don't know anything other than there's someone pumping arrows into members of The List and Tommy's body is missing."

"Yeah, but The Dark Archer was Merlyn, right?" Thea asked.

"Yes." Oliver replied. "And once Tommy found out who his father was, he resented him immensely. Attacking the others who helped with The Undertaking makes a lot of sense for Tommy especially if The League had something do to with his resurrection. Remember, The League hated The Undertaking."

"It broke our code." Sara added softly.

"So, if The Dark Archer is really coming after Tempest members, we need to look at who we think he's going after next."

"The List is too large." Diggle commented. "There's no way we can keep tabs on all of them."

"No," Oliver admitted. "but we may be able to put tabs on enough of them that if The Dark Archer comes after one of them, their communication networks would cross and we could find out about. I'm not saying it's a foolproof plan but it's the best we have."

"He's right." Felicity added. "It's really the only way to do it. I'll start tapping phones and hacking digital communication of former Tempest members."

"Good, Felicity. The rest of us need to keep an eye out when we're on patrols. If we hear of another attack by The Dark Archer, we retreat back here. We cannot be associated with this."

* * *

This was starting to get frustrating. For the last four days, there had been at least one attack by The Dark Archer. This forced Oliver to stay in while the others, Diggle included in a vigilante outfit of his own complete with bo staff just like Sara, patrolled the city. This night, he was watching from his office at Queen Tower. In the years since he started out as The Arrow, he had linked every piece of computer controlled equipment that he owned to the computers in the ArrowCave. It was in this way that Oliver could make it look like he was working when he was in fact communicating and directing his forces on patrol.

Tonight's murder had been of European oil magnate Victor Roskachev, owner of Trifecta Oil. Roskachev was the wealthiest and most connected man in the city. At this point, Oliver was wondering when the National Guard was going to be called in. This new Dark Archer was destroying Oliver, moving faster than he could anticipate and with no discernible pattern.

Oliver had gone through the List, both with computer and without, and could find no connection between any of the eleven former Tempest members that The Dark Archer had killed. He wasn't going through the list in any particular order and no defining characteristics could be determined that would filter them out from the rest of the Tempest members.

"Mr. Queen."

Oliver looked up and saw Felicity standing there in front of him, a list of files in hand. Obviously, she had business to discuss.

"Felicity, you can call me Oliver." Oliver replied, motioning for her to sit.

"No, Mr. Queen, I really can't." Felicity shot back stubbornly. "If I start calling you Oliver in private, I may call you Oliver in public. Even with my-"

"Even with your new position, you feel that showing that you are friends with me shows weakness." Oliver finished. "It shows that you didn't get the job on your own merit simply because you knew the famous billionaire CEO. How close am I?"

"Dead on as usual, Mr. Queen."

"Oliver." he insisted. "Felicity, when the others around the building realize just how good you are at your job, that is when they know that there's no one in the country better than you at what you do, they're going to respect you. They may hate you a bit for as good as you are, even if you are as nice to them as you always are to everyone else, but they will respect you."

"You're sure?"

"More sure than that about almost anything else right now." Oliver replied as he saw his business nemesis approaching him. "Good evening, Isabel."

"Oliver, Ms. Smoak." Isabel replied. Oliver was surprised to see that Isabel had even acknowledged Felicity, despite Felicity's new position. However, Oliver realized that Isabel was probably worried about her own place within QC since much of her investments had gone belly up in the past two years.

"What can I do for you?" Oliver asked, reverting back to CEO-mode.

"I have a question for you." Isabel said before darting her eyes towards Felicity. "A private one."

"Felicity, would you mind?" Oliver asked, the annoying grind barely hidden in his voice.

"Not at all, Oliver." Felicity replied, a slight growl in her voice.

"I'll talk to you about that proposal." Oliver shot back before redirecting his attention towards Isabel. "Now, your question?"

"Yes." Isabel answered as she sat across from him in the chair that Felicity had just vacated. "I've noticed that our Governmental Affairs Department has greenlighted sixteen new projects in the past two weeks, none of which had board approval. Just wondering when something is going to be done about that, because I'm sure that with Ms. Smoak being in charge of that department, you look at everything involving it."

"I do." Oliver admitted calmly. "And I approved all of those projects as you noticed."

"Yes, but the board of directors did not."

"They don't have to." Oliver said blandly with a grin. "I own 64% of Queen Consolidated with the intention of purchasing 6% more by the end of the year. As a result, I could fire the entire board if I wanted to. But, I haven't. I utilize the board, and you, as a set of advisers. However, certain advisers, including you, have not earned my trust enough to be included in these matters."

"Excuse me, Oli-"

"Don't call me, Oliver." Oliver roared sharply. "You think you may know me but you realistically have very little clue who I am?"

Oliver knew that this was the stress of the Dark Archer speaking but it was also something that he probably should have been said a long time ago.

"What is Tempest?" Oliver barked.

"I'm sorry?" Isabel questioned unconvincingly.

"Don't think you're fooling me. What is Tempest!?"

Again, Oliver could tell Isabel was going to deny any knowledge of what Tempest was. Unfortunately for her, Oliver had had enough. Jumping up from his place, Oliver launched himself at her, grabbing her by the throat and in one swift motion, flipped her head over heels so that her back slammed hard against his desk. Once she was there, Oliver instantly applied pressure to her thin throat, causing to her try and claw at his hand while gagging and gasping for air.

"We should have had this out years ago, Isabel." Oliver growled. "I knew that you were working for Wilson. I know that you've had regular contact with Malcolm Merlyn since he left Starling. If I had to guess, I would say that one of them, probably Wilson, wanted me back in Starling. So, they had you threaten my company. Well, you see how that worked out for you."

Isabel's only response was a gasp as her face started to turn blue.

"I know that you know I'm the Arrow." Oliver whispered into her ear as he leaned down next to her. "I've known it for almost three whole years now. So, here's how this is going to work. I'm going to let go of your throat and you're going to tell me what I want to hear. If I like what I hear, I let you go, you resign from QC and I never see you again. If I don't like what I hear, I'm going to see how many times I can break your neck with one hand. Clear?"

A panicked nod was her response. Seeing that, Oliver let go. Almost instantly, Isabel began spitting and gagging, doing everything she could to get air back into her lungs. Finally, after several seconds, she was able to speak.

"What do you want to know?" Isabel choked out.

"Why is Merlyn back in town?" Oliver asked. While he was fairly certain that the body in the casket was Malcolm's, he wanted to test Isabel, to see how much she knew about him.

"Malcolm Merlyn is dead, Queen." Isabel spat. "You know that since you had his son's body exhumed."

"I do know that. What I want to know is how was he killed and where is his son's body?"

"The last I'd heard, his son's body was wandering the Earth somewhere."

"Excuse me?" Oliver shot back, his heart stopping.

"Before Malcolm was killed, he was able to have his son resurrected using the same serum that was running through Slade's veins." Isabel said, her strength returning to her as she taunted Oliver. "Tommy Merlyn is alive, Queen, and has been for some time. You think I've been contacting Malcolm all this time? Malcolm has been dead at least since last Christmas. That's the first time Tommy came to my office."

"He's been here? In Starling?"

"And he hasn't even come to visit?" Isabel replied mockingly. "That's too sad."

"Go to hell." Oliver growled as he struck Isabel directly in the stomach, knocking all the air out of her lungs. Within seconds, she was vomiting blood all over Oliver's floor. "Now that's just disgusting. One more question: what was Tempest's original purpose?"

After throwing up what Oliver was fairly sure was everything she had eaten in the last two days, Isabel responded softly.

"Tempest was designed as a way for the elite of Starling City to spread our influence. We used it to buy political candidates and city officials to do our bidding. It was basically a small form Illuminati."

"With Malcolm Merlyn in charge?"

"There was no one in charge." Isabel barked out, words struggling to come as she still fought for air. "Meetings were called as we saw fit. Favors were called in, deals made. I believe your father, the self-serving bastard, agreed to join so that he could take Queen Consolidated to the top of the business world."

"He succeeded."

"He also brought Malcolm Merlyn in the group with him. Each member of Tempest was required to pay five million dollars which was placed in an off-shore account, only to be used when 66% of the group was in agreement with a plan. Well, there were over sixty members of Tempest. That means that before investment strategies were used, Tempest had 300 million dollars in the bank. That number was more than a billion after we worked our magic with it. That was after one year. With that money, we had unlimited resources."

"What does this have to do with that?"

"Malcolm Merlyn was the one who worked that magic. He was the one who was able to turn our large fortune into a massive one. We could have bought most of the countries in the world outright with the money we had. That money magic bought him a lot of favors."

"Favors which turned into The Undertaking."

"Correct." Isabel said as she leaned against Oliver's desk, obviously feeling weak. "It didn't help that your stupid mother became his sidekick once your bastard of a father kicked the bucket."

At the mention of his father, Oliver snapped. In a flash, he stepped forward and launched a crushing right hook into her face. Isabel absorbed the full force of the blow and collapsed on the floor. As Oliver watched her, he could see the blood starting to form around her head.

"Get out." Oliver growled. "You're bleeding all over my floor."

Groggily, Isabel stood to her feet and staggered out of the room. Oliver watched her go and once she was gone, he returned to his chair. For several minutes, he sat in silence, contemplating the information he had just heard. That was until he got the feeling that he was being watched.

Years of training had conditioned Oliver to be used to noticing anything that was out of the ordinary. Looking out the window, Oliver noticed where that feeling was coming from. Oliver made his way to his feet and then weakly walked to the window.

The setting sun made it so that Oliver could barely make out the outline of the person standing on the building across the street but that was all he needed. Oliver would never forget the outline of his first enemy.

Suddenly, his cell phone started ringing. Quickly, and nervously, Oliver fumbled to pull it out of his pocket before answering it.

"...hello?"

For a few seconds, there was no response. And then, like it had been yesterday, he heard his voice.

_"Ollie, I see that life as CEO is treating you well."_

It couldn't be.

"Tommy?"

_"In the flesh."_


	5. IV: Rochev

"How is this possible?" Oliver said as he stared at the face across from him.

"You know exactly how this is possible, Ollie." Tommy replied as he sat across from Oliver.

The pair of old friends had decided to meet in the back room of a restaurant that Oliver owned. It was where Oliver did most of his business deals anyway so no one would be terribly interested in who was entering the back door while Oliver would certainly hog the limelight out front.

"Well, to hear it explained would be wonderful."

"I suppose I can give you that." Tommy replied with that same smirk that he had used for years. "So, as you no doubt remember, I was killed on the night of the Undertaking."

"I vaguely remember that." Oliver answered sadly.

"So you also remember that you told me you hadn't killed my father?"

"I also remember that."

"Can you explain how he ended up with an arrow in his chest _before _the quake actually occurred?"

"I lied to you." Oliver admitted sheepishly. "I didn't want you to be angry at me. I knew you were going to die and I just wanted you to be at peace."

"I know." Tommy said with a sad smile. "At the time, I would have been upset with you had I survived. Now, I understand just what a worthless piece of shit my father was."

"So, I can assume that it was you who killed him?"

"You would assume incorrectly. It was Nyssa who killed him actually."

"Nyssa al Ghul?" Oliver asked in shock. "So it was The League of Assassins that brought you back?"

Tommy nodded as the door to the room opened with a waiter entering. After quickly ordering their food, Oliver asked the waiter for no interruptions until their food was brought it. After the waiter left the room, they continued.

"It was The League." Tommy confirmed. "They brought me back and they gave me my life back, along with my mission."

"Your mission?"

"My father thought that by returning to Nanda Parbat, he could curry favor with The Head of the Demon. He brought them my body and they used their restorative chemicals to bring me back to life. However, our payment for my return to life was that I swear my allegiance to The League for life. Only hours after I was reawakened, my training began."

"You were trained by The League?"

"You've seen what I've been doing since I returned to Starling. Although from what I've seen, you been doing most of your watching from your corner office."

"You make it hard to be The Green _Arrow _when members of the 1% are getting arrows pumped into their chest."

"I suppose." Tommy answered with a chuckle. "Either way, my training began and for eighteen months, that was all I did. Finally, I completed my training. However, confirmation into The League requires the successful completion of one assassination. My target was a Japanese merchant who was stealing land from the descendants of feudal leaders. It was a rather easy kill. When I returned to Nanda Parbat, my next target was to be my father. Unfortunately, he found out through his network and tried to attack me."

"Tried?" Oliver asked.

"Well, it is difficult to kill someone else when Nyssa al Ghul puts an arrow through your head." Tommy replied with a grin. "Within a day, we removed most of the vital organs and placed what was left of his body in my grave in Starling City. No one would ever know the difference."

This information was almost too much for Oliver to handle. For years, he had operated under the belief that his best friend was dead and that it was his fault. Now, his friend was back from the dead and a trained killer.

"I have a question." Oliver muttered finally.

"Shoot."

"Before The Undertaking, you believed that I was a psychopath, a mass murderer. But now, you're doing the exact same thing that I was doing. You're going through that List and just killing everyone."

"That's not a question."

"What makes what you're doing any different from me?"

"It's not." Tommy replied simply.

"Then what changed your mind?"

"When I saw just how terrible my father was. When I saw the awful things that our parents had done in the name of more money. More power. My father will say that he did it for vengeance but he didn't join Tempest for that reason. He joined Tempest to control the world and he was doing his very best to try."

The voice was the same but the tone was so different. In the past, Tommy had been so carefree. Even things weren't great for him towards the end of his previous life, there was always a very relaxed feel to Tommy. Now, things were different. Oliver could hear the same control, the same kind of focus that he often felt in himself now lay within Tommy.

It was disconcerting to see his best friend so different. Internally, Oliver wondered if this is what he looked like to everyone else when he had returned from the island.

"You said something about a mission?" Oliver asked.

"I figured you'd ask about that." Tommy replied, that clever smirk returning to his face. "Normally, I wouldn't be able to tell anyone but I figure you would get the connection sooner or later."

"You're killing everyone in Tempest."

"Almost, but not quite. I'm killing the people that were the main supporters of The Undertaking."

Oliver had never expected Tommy to be so frank about his actions in Starling City. Yet, here he was, talking to Oliver about killing billionaires as if it was nothing. It seemed that Tommy read the confusion on Oliver's face. He commented as such.

"What's the problem, Ollie?"

"I'm just surprised." Oliver admitted. "Tommy Merlyn, the same person who called me a murdering psychopath, killing billionaires without remorse. You know that I can't let you continue, right?"

"You're going to sit here and lecture me about murdering the same people that you spent a year going after!" Tommy screamed, flipping the table over in front of him. It was in this moment that Oliver truly saw that something about Tommy that had changed.

Anger most people had and held inside themselves. But what Oliver saw was not just anger.

It was rage. A rage potentially fueled by the Mirakuru.

Standing, Oliver reached back into his back pocket, grasping the flechette that he always held there.

"I've changed, Tommy." Oliver pleaded, knowing that he needed for his friend to understand. "I realized that the brand of justice I was delivering wasn't the way things should be done. I may kill occasionally now but only out of necessity."

"This IS a necessity!" Tommy shouted. "These people, my father included, destroyed this city! The League of Assassins may believe in destroying parts of the world in order to improve them but in much more subtle ways. We do not condone mass murder and destruction as a means of doing business."

"Then what do you believe in?"

"Controlled strikes. Political appointments." Tommy replied simply. "In the past, The Head of the Demon may have believed that mass destruction would get things done. Now, with his years of experience, he knows better. He knows that the world won't change in the face of destruction. Not permanently anyway. So, instead, we remove corrupt officials and replace them with ones that will work for us. Towards the betterment of all men."

"So the "controlled" murder of those on the list is better for everyone?" Oliver shot back. "Listen, I know how this sounds, coming from me and all, but there has to be another way. I tried this way and it got the Glades destroyed."

Finally, Oliver could tell that Tommy was done listening for this evening.

"Talk all you want about being the better man, or even just being a better man." Tommy snapped. "But you know that you've gotten weaker. No way Wilson should have given you as much trouble as he did. You've gone soft, Ollie. You've gotten too close to your allies."

"Too close?" Oliver asked, not liking where this conversation was going.

"Slade knew exactly where to hit you. Not Thea, not your mother, but Felicity. She's made you weak."

Before Oliver knew what his feet were doing, he had launched himself across the room, grabbing Tommy around the throat and hoisting him off the floor, letting his feet dangle while Tommy struggled for air.

"You will get out, Tommy." Oliver growled menacingly. "You will get out of Starling City and never come back. If I see you again, if you even come close to Starling City for the rest of time, I will not hesitate to put an arrow in each eye. Slade Wilson barely managed to survive one, I'd like to see you survive two."

With that, Oliver dropped Tommy, allowing him to collapse on the floor. With composure, Tommy stood and glared Oliver right in the eye.

"I'll see you tomorrow night then."

* * *

The next morning, Felicity and Oliver sat in Oliver's corner office. So far that morning, they had actually been discussing matters important to QC but finally the topic shifted to Tommy.

"So he's really alive?" Felicity asked in shock when Oliver finished relaying his story to her.

"Alive and very different from the Tommy I knew."

"How so?"

"There's an edge to him that wasn't there before." Oliver observed softly, mostly to himself. "When I mentioned that what he was doing was wrong, even though I understood the hypocrisy of what I was saying, he nearly lost it. Flipped the table over. He looked like he was on the verge of losing it. It looked familiar."

"Like Roy or Slade." Felicity said, finishing his thought.

"Exactly. I think there's something about being brought back from the dead that set him off. He's still in there but there's a strength, a conviction in his beliefs that Tommy never had before."

"It could be that it's simply unnatural. Maybe, even if we're able, being brought back from the dead is something we just shouldn't do."

"Maybe." Oliver replied, staring off towards the building where he had first seen Tommy the night before. "How are you enjoying being back in Starling?"

"To be honest, I'm loving it." Felicity replied with a smile. "I may have enjoyed working with Wayne, him being an egotistical maniac aside, but I enjoy the work that I get to do here much better. Plus, I get to build my own computer and database again. Do you realize how long it's been since I've gotten to do that? After Tockman fried the servers at The Foundry, I had to rebuild those but I haven't done anything since then! That's over two years! And, the new tech that QC gets that I can use publicly now without having to hide it-aaaand I'm rambling."

"Yes, yes you are." Oliver smirked.

"I really haven't done that in a long time." Felicity replied, curiously looking at him. "I wonder why."

"Maybe you didn't find Wayne attractive enough."

"Oh Wayne was plenty attractive." Felicity blurted out before realizing what she had just said. "And my filter is gone, too. Greeeat. Wait a minute, why would Wayne being attractive have anything to do with it?"

"You tend to do it most when you get nervous or when you're distracted. Most of your rambling in the past occurred while I was training. I don't think you were nervous around me, at least not anymore. But I think you were definitely distracted."

"By what!?" Felicity asked indignetly.

"Well, a few times I heard you mutter something about how you wondered what it would be like to eat off those abs."

"Excuse me!? I would never say something like that!"

"Just because you wouldn't say doesn't mean it doesn't come out of your mouth anyway." Oliver countered with an evil grin.

"Listen, just because I don't always control what I say-"

"You meant can't control." Oliver interrupted.

"Gah! Just because I _can't _control what I say doesn't mean that there aren't some things that don't actually manage to stay hidden in there."

"I know there are things that stay hidden in there, Felicity." Oliver replied, suddenly serious as his thoughts turned to Slade Wilson.

"Like what?"

The look on her face was almost entirely unreadable. Her face was so gentle and so pure it almost made Oliver want to cry. She had been through so much, endured so much.

And almost all of it was due to him. He knew only limited amounts of her life before Queen Consolidated but he knew that her family life wasn't ideal. Her father had abandoned her and her mother at a very young age and Oliver suspected that her mother was either out of her life entirely or deceased as Oliver had never heard her mention her.

But even then, she had been shot, captured, tortured, forced to watch him nearly die three separate times and about three dozen other things that alone would make someone go nuts.

So gentle, so pure and yet so strong. That was Felicity Smoak in a nutshell.

"Like what, Oliver?" Felicity repeated as Oliver thought to himself.

"Nevermind." Oliver answer, trying to avoid the subjects that would surely be brought up if this conversation continued.

"Not nevermind." Felicity said as she stepped around his desk before sitting on the desk in front of him. "Talk to me."

Oliver paused for a second. Didn't she realize that was all he wanted? All he wanted in life was to be able to talk to Felicity Smoak? To tell her just how much she meant to him? But he couldn't. Felicity needed to stay alive and to stay alive meant a life away from Oliver. Eventually, Oliver knew that she would leave Starling again and when she did, Oliver would let her go, knowing that she would have survived simply being his friend.

He could never imagine that the target he would paint on her back if they ever were more than that.

"About what?" Oliver replied innocently.

"Don't you do that to me, Oliver Queen!" Felicity scolded. "You can do that to everyone else. You can do it to Thea or Roy or even Diggle but you can't hide from me."

"What is there to hide? I can't hide anything from you, Felicity. That's part of the problem. You seem to know every thought that I have."

"Well, for once, I'm stumped so enlighten me."

For just a moment, Oliver considered lying to her. However, Oliver knew that she would see straight through that. So, he opted for the truth, as terrifying as it was.

"Why did you leave?" Oliver asked, his gaze targeted for the very center of her eyes.

"Oliver..."

"Please," Oliver begged. "You've gotten me this far. You've gotten me to talk. You know how hard it is for me to talk sometimes. Well, I'm talking. Please don't shut me down here."

"It's not as simple as one answer." Felicity answered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Do what you can."

"OK." Felicity replied. Quickly, she hopped up from the desk and circled back around to the other side before pacing slowly back and forth in front of his desk. "It started a few weeks before Slade kidnapped me. I saw you and Sara together and I realized how close I had gotten to you. I dealt with it in my own way. I retreated, I got quiet but as the weeks passed, it was always there, some kind of pounding in my chest."

Felicity stopped her pacing and stared right at him, her eyes looking at him with an emotion that he couldn't describe. All he knew is that as their eyes locked, his fingertips burned with feeling, as if his body couldn't contain all the energy that single look was creating in him.

"Then, Slade went after Diggle. When we visited Diggle in the hospital, I played back that night in my head. Part of the reason that Diggle ended up in the hospital was because he was trying to protect me while Slade was attacking him. If I hadn't been there, Diggle may have stood a better chance. Instead, Diggle nearly died because of the beating Slade gave him."

"Felicity, you can't think like that." Oliver said softly.

"I couldn't help it! For awhile, I had been the one that could defend herself. There's you, Dig, Sara, Roy: all of you can keep yourselves safe. Me? You better hope the attacker is a dwarf or I'm screwed."

That comment elicited a small chuckle from Oliver while Felicity continued.

"Then, Slade kidnapped me."

"You know that I-"

"Stop." Felicity order softly. "Just listen, please. When Slade kidnapped me, he started in on me. For the first few days, I was able to ignore him. I would just wander off inside my own head to stay away from him. But, as insane as he was, he was also insanely intelligent. He knew which buttons to push and he pushed them until I couldn't handle it anymore."

"What did he say?" Oliver asked, almost afraid to know.

"He said that he knew that you loved me. That's why he chose me, Oliver." Felicity said, tears forming in earnest. "He chose me because he knew how much you cared for me. He even said he knew it more than you did. He told me that when you figured it out, and he knew you would, you would do everything you could to stop him or more importantly, save me."

"He was right."

All Oliver could think of was Slade's instructions: come alone, come completely unarmed and set yourself in the middle of Verdant, hands behind your back and legs crossed. Do that and you get Felicity back.

Oliver had complied at once. For all of Slade's machinations, his scheme was really quite simple. Over the period of several months, Slade broke him, slowly and excruciatingly painfully. Finally, at the very end of his scheme, he had convinced Laurel that Oliver wasn't to be trusted, even if she wouldn't believe that he was The Arrow. She had left to be an Assistant District Attorney in Coast City.

Thea had left Starling City for eight months. Finally, she showed a wisdom beyond her years when she returned to Starling and let Oliver apologize for lying to her after his return from the island.

Roy had nearly given up on Oliver. It had taken a beating from Slade Wilson to prove to Roy just how dangerous Oliver had been. Since then, Roy and Oliver's relationship had been mostly business, despite the fact that he and Thea were going to get married someday.

Diggle and Sara had fought with Oliver repeatedly over his reluctance to kill Slade. Even though Oliver knew it needed to be done, he couldn't imagine that he was going to be forced to kill the man who had saved his life and given him the ability to save his city.

Through all of Slade Wilson's planning, Felicity Smoak was the only person that never lost faith in him. Never once did she question his methodology and while she may have disagreed with him at times, she never lost faith in him.

Then, at the very end, Slade took that faith and broke it.

"He was." Felicity admitted. "When you showed up at Verdant, I knew that he had been right. I knew that you loved me and that I loved you. I also knew that if I survived that night, I was leaving Starling City."

"Why?" Oliver asked, although he suspected the answer.

"Because I couldn't let your love for me destroy you." Felicity answered, almost sobbing at this point. "You had so much pain in your life already. Your father killing himself in front of you, your years on the island, Tommy's death, Moira's deceit. After all of that, I couldn't bare to add to it. Plus, I rather arrogantly figured that my death would break you and I feared what you would become when you broke."

"You were right." Oliver agreed with a sad smile. "You were also my hope. You were the one of us that was normal. You seemed to keep as much of a normal life as possible. You worried about bills, about work and about the small things in life that I had forgotten years ago. If I had lost that, if I had seen that light extinguished, I probably would have fallen off the deep end."

"I know. So, I left. I thought about calling you, about leaving a note or sending an email. In the end, I decided that as much as it would hurt you, I needed to save you from yourself."

Felicity, as always, was simply doing what she did best: protect Oliver. He had known from the moment she had left that something had happened with Slade. She had been in harms way before and had not left him. But this time had obviously been different.

This time, she did leave.

"Well, how about this time you save me from myself here in Starling?" Oliver said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't returning to the ArrowCave." Felicity warned him. "I can't be that again."

"Maybe you can't, but you can still be here for me. So that I have someone to fall back on when I get in my own head."

For a second, Felicity considered Oliver's request.

"I don't know that I can consistently be that person, Oliver. You mean too much to me and I think you care about me too much to jeopardize each other's lives like that again. I'll be your friend, Oliver, but that's it."

Of all the things that Oliver had expected her to say, that had not been it. Where was the fearless, relentlessly optimistic Felicity Smoak? It was then that Oliver realized that being kidnapped by a super soldier probably had a way of sapping your optimism.

Slowly, Felicity stood and walked towards the glass doors on the far side of the room. Before she reached them, she turned back to Oliver, a look of regret and conflict on her face.

"In case you're wondering, that version of me that you fell in love with, it's still in there somewhere." Felicity said, basically reading his mind. "Unfortunately, it's been covered by a different version."

"Which version?"

"One more similar to you." Felicity answered sadly before walking out the door.

As he watched her leave, he leaned back in his chair to contemplate what they had just said to each other. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. The TV, which had been on the whole time but he had been able to ignore it, was firing out the headlines for this evening news, complete with one surprising anchor story.

_"Within the last hour, Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress, has escaped from her cell at The Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is a UN-sanctioned supermax prison for criminals of an extreme variety. The Huntress is best known for the pursuit of her father, Frank Bertinelli, a widely known Starling City mob boss, and for her repeated conflicts with The Green Arrow. After escaping from Iron Heights Penitentiary in Starling City and before her imprisonment in The Labyrinth, Bertinelli started a career as a part-time assassin. It is believed that she has escaped from The Labyrinth to accept a potential contract on the life of Gotham City billionaire Bruce Wayne. Wayne is famous for recently inciting the rage of the Maroni Crime Family..."_

The rest of the story was unimportant. Instantly, Oliver called up the rest of Team Arrow.

"ArrowCave, now."

* * *

"Just what we needed, Queen of the Crazy People on the loose again." Roy muttered softly to himself as he sat down.

The four permanent members of Team Arrow sat in the recreational area of the ArrowCave. Over the past two years, with Oliver spending an exorbitant amount of time in the ArrowCave, it was decided that a more comfortable place was needed to watch their briefings and news broadcasts. So, Oliver had spent a ridiculous amount of money to convert one of the far corners of the Cave to a recreational area, complete with several couches and big screen TVs. It was there that Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow watched the coverage of Helena's escape.

"This does seem to be exceedingly poor timing with Tommy's return." Diggle replied.

"Maybe it's not coincidence." Sara answered. "Someone with the League backing him could very well have the ability to break someone like Helena out of a cell in the Labyrinth."

"Except there's been no reports of an accomplices." Oliver countered.

"That we know of." Sara replied before pulling out her laptop and tablet. Quietly, she began running hacks of the United Nations and World Security Council, both locations that could potentially have the security footage from the Labyrinth.

"So who do we focus our attention on?" Roy asked. "I know that we don't know about Helena's motives but if she really is going after Wayne..."

"Then he can take care of himself." Oliver growled, thinking of the unpleasant man from Gotham. "Our primary goal, as it always should be, is the protection of Starling City."

"And Tommy." Diggle added. "Despite the fact that he's getting rid of bad people, he's going to eventually tip public favor away from The Green Arrow. If and when that happens, it will be just like the beginning again. Instead of getting help from the police, they'll be chasing after us."

"Minus Lance, of course." Roy replied, looking at Sara. "Your dad still has no idea who we are?"

"Laurel didn't tell him and neither did I." Sara said softly. "I really believe him when he says that he doesn't care about who's behind the mask."

"Quentin will help us as he's done for awhile now. What we need to focus on is how to stop Tommy."

For several minutes, the group of them sat, watching the coverage of Helena Bertinelli's escape from the most secure prison on the planet. While the others may have really been focusing on that, all Oliver could think about was his friend. Helena had been a very brief foray, Tommy had been with him since they were four.

"What if we gave him a target?"

Everyone looked at Roy as he spoke, breaking the silence. Roy rarely was one for the planning of attacks. While he was still very good at executing them with minimal traces of the Mirakuru in his system, Roy had never had much interest in the formation of plans. He very rarely attended meeting of Team Arrow with his college classes taking precedence so for Roy to actually suggest something was exceedingly rare.

"What kind of target?" Diggle questioned.

"One from the List, obviously." Roy commented. "We have the entire list of Tempest members. But we only know one personally."

"Isabel." Oliver stated.

"Exactly. We own her after we got her to realize how insane Slade was."

"She's still an insufferable bitch." Sara muttered.

"Yes, but that's her business persona. Always has, always will be." Oliver countered. "After my conversation with Isabel yesterday, we're on the same page. She has known about The Green Arrow for some time and I've known about her affiliation with Slade. Thankfully, I was able to convince her out of helping that psychopath or I may have lost QC to Wilson permanently."

"So what do we do with her?" Diggle asked.

"First, I talk to her about Tempest again. With any luck, she personally helped Merlyn with The Undertaking. If that's the case, we put her out in a very public place with a hell of a lot of publicity and wait for Tommy to strike."

"You don't think that Tommy will suspect that?"

"He may." Oliver admitted. "However, he doesn't know that I know about the List. At the very least, he doesn't know that I still have a copy of The List. Also, even if he does, he would never think that I would put someone out there to be killed just to draw him out."

"He doesn't know how much we hate her." Sara grumbled.

"Sara." Oliver warned harshly. "We've had our differences with Isabel, both past and present, but she made the right choice in the end."

"Yeah, after she tried to bankrupt you and steal your company." Diggle shot back.

"Fair enough." Oliver replied with a smile. "Alright, I'll go to Isabel and we'll work something out."

* * *

The next evening, Oliver watched as Isabel Rochev took the podium he had just vacated from the back of the main ballroom in Queen Tower. Moments earlier, Oliver had announced that Isabel Rochev was stepping down as the Chairperson of the QC Board and was accepting a position as the President of Queen Consolidated: Gotham, a newly formed (as in just hours earlier) sister corporation formed of all of Queen Consolidated's assets in Gotham. With a need to put Isabel in the spotlight and a need for leadership in Gotham, Oliver found the perfect compromise between work and _other _work.

"Everyone have eyes on?" Oliver asked into his earpiece which was equipped with a hyper-sensitive microphone. With his position as CEO of Queen Consolidated, he need to be present from the start to finish of this particular event. Due to that, every other member of Team Arrow was positioned in locations where they could see into the ballroom through its massive windows.

_"Arsenal, eyes on."_

_"Canary, eyes on." _Sara added.

_"Hood, eyes on target." _Diggle replied, using his rarely used call sign. For this particular mission, Oliver had placed all hands on deck, which was why...

_"Speedy, and yes, I do see the bitch." _was the next voice to ring out over the comm.

"Thea..." Oliver said warningly, although a smile did creep onto his face.

_"Can't say that I disagree with her there." _Roy replied. _"Anyway, we're all here so what are we waiting for?"_

"We wait until Isabel is done with her speech. When she's done, she will follow a path of large windows and unguarded elevators to her office where she will get to work cleaning out her office. Hood, you're her trail the whole time. Speedy, you keep eyes on until she's in that elevator. Arsenal and Canary, you are in charge of hauling ass up to a vantage point where her office can be seen, complete 360 degree coverage."

"What will you be doing?"

"The second she leaves the room, I'm accessing my personal elevator where my own attire is waiting. I'll be changed by the time it hits her floor. Then, I'll wait in a darker and more visual concealed portion of her floor until I get confirmation that Tommy is attacking."

"And what makes you think that he will be attacking?" Thea asked as she drifted near Oliver, talking towards him so that the content of her question wouldn't be a concern to the rest of the announcement's attendees.

"Tommy always was a risk taker." Oliver replied, meeting his sister's eyes. "With his new abilities and a little bit of what makes Roy so deadly floating around in his system, I'm certain that he's confident enough to take Isabel down even though he knows it will be a trap."

_"Is he wrong?" _Diggle asked.

"I'm not sure." Oliver admitted as Isabel finished her speech. "He's proven himself to be skilled and impossible to track. We'll just have to see."

As Oliver finished speaking, a roar of applause rose in the room as Isabel smiled and took a short bow to the crowd. Obviously, she had said something good so Oliver and Thea dutifully clapped while slowly making their way to their points. As they started moving, Isabel looked out into the crowd and caught Oliver's eye, who nodded subtly.

With a worried look on her face, she quickly shook a few hands around her before pointedly making her way out of the room. As she did that, Thea broke away from Oliver.

"Constant communication." Oliver barked softly. "I want to know everything that's going on."

_"Got it." _Thea whispered back.

Within seconds, Oliver was inside his elevator to which he, and he only, had a passcode. After punching that code in, the elevator quickly began its crawl to the top of the building. As that happened, Oliver quickly began to remove his suit to replace with one with just a bit more leather.

_"The Queen is in the elevator." _Thea said firmly. _"By the way, why did we give her that code name? She did fuck Dad when she was younger."_

"That's the joke." Oliver whispered. "As much as she wanted to be one of us, this is the only way she got it."

_"OH, that's just cold." _Diggle said mockingly. _"Elevator at the 24th floor. Arrow, where are you?"_

"36." Oliver replied as he pulled the final part of his dress suit off, standing alone in the elevator in just his compression shorts and socks. Quickly, Oliver pulled a bag out of a hidden compartment in the elevator where his entire Green Arrow uniform rested. As fast as he could, Oliver changed into the leather suit.

Within seconds, the elevator dinged, announcing his arrival to the 76th Floor. Oliver just finished placing his mask over his eyes before pulling his hood up and stepping out of the elevator, bow and quiver in tow.

"Update." Oliver ordered.

_"Her elevator just reached 76." _Roy said confidently. _"Arsenal in position."_

_"Canary in place as well." _Sara echoed.

"Good. Moving towards her end of the floor."

_"Hood, accessing roof to continue pursuit."_

"Negative." Oliver ordered, uncertain as to why Diggle would enter the building. "I don't need you in here."

_"I know you probably don't think you need me in here but if Tommy is even close to as good as his dad once was PLUS a little Mirakuru induced madness, then you'll need me."_

"Fair enough." Oliver mused as he marched confidently.

Quickly and quietly, Oliver moved, hardly making a sound. After making his way through several security doors that required a passcode, Oliver finally made it to Isabel's office.

"Everyone ready?" Oliver whispered.

_"Ready." _came a unified response on the comms.

For several minutes, Oliver sat just outside Isabel's office, watching as she mechanically went about cleaning out her office. Suddenly, she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Oliver." she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Isabel?" Oliver replied, moving to stand in the guarded entrance to her office. He still didn't want anyone to know that he was in the building so he blocked himself from any looking from the outside of the building.

"I had to." Isabel whispered fearfully, turning around to face him.

"Had to do what?"

"I was the one that led the sabotage of the Queen's Gambit." Isabel replied, speaking incredibly fast. "I was so angry at your father for leaving me that I initiated the plan to kill you and your father on your trip. Merlyn just made it happen."

"I knew that already." Oliver replied softly. "I knew from the moment you told me about you and my father."

"But then, I was also in charge of the mercenaries on the island."

"What?"

"Edward Fyers worked for me." Isabel replied. "Unfortunately, by the time that Fyers actually reported that you were on the island, you managed to kill him."

"Yeah, that was really unfortunate." Oliver mused. "What's the point of telling me this, Isabel?"

"Once you're in with Tempest, there's no getting back out." Isabel replied. "Tommy Merlyn knew that."

"Excuse me?"

"Merlyn knew that I had been working with Tempest. He also knew that my adopted parents still live in the city."

"I thought you said that your adopted parents were dead."

"I was trying to get you to sympathize with me. So, I lied, created the death of my parents. Merlyn knew better. I may be cold, I may hate you and everything your family stands for but I do love my parents. They brought me out of that Russian hellhole I lived in and gave me a good life. I became something they wouldn't have been proud of and they shouldn't have to pay for that."

"He threatened them?"

"Yes." Isabel said tearfully. "Unless I went along with his plan."

"Which is?"

"Your plan."

Suddenly, Oliver had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"What do you mean?"

"Merlyn knew that you were planning on using me as bait. He knew that you were trying to draw him out, trying to get him to face you. So, to save the only good part left in my life, I was to be the bait."

"Why?"

"So that I could be punished for my role in The Undertaking in front of you."

_"Oliver, we have a problem." _

"Not now, Diggle."

"You don't hate me." Isabel whispered softly. "I did everything I could to destroy your family and your city and yet you kept me alive. Even kept me employed. I appreciate that, I really do but you're not my family."

"I understand." Oliver replied, truly understanding. As he did, he pulled an arrow out of his quiver and nocked it. "You didn't have to do this at all."

_"Oliver!"_

"Diggle, not now!" Oliver shouted this time.

"No, I really did."

**_"Oliver!"_**

This time, Oliver could hear Diggle's problem. If he had paid attention, he probably would have seen it first and been prepared for it. At first, it sounded like the hardest rain you had ever heard. But then, the sound began to build. That sound came from the fire of at least one, probably two, giant automatic weapons coming from the building just across the street.

As Oliver heard the fire, his eyes rotated back to Isabel, who seemed to float for a second before bullets rocked her body, throwing her backwards. Moving as quickly as he could, Oliver dove back behind the stone column he had been hiding behind.

Unfortunately, he did not quite move fast enough. As he dove, one bullet drove deep into his left thigh, burning as it tore through his flesh. Another lodged itself his right forearm and a final shot grazed him in the hip.

For what seemed like hours, Oliver hid behind that column, blood flowing freely, as the sound of automatic gunfire thundered around him. Suddenly, Oliver heard something that he couldn't make out coming from his earpiece. Seconds later, the gunfire stopped.

_"Oliver, I just saw Merlyn but he got away." _Diggle shouted, obviously out of breath.

"You're sure it was him?" Oliver grunted, struggling not to pass out.

_"Positive."_

_"We got something else, though."_

"What?"

_"Helena Bertinelli knocked out next to a minigun."_

"Take her to the Foundry." Oliver bellowed. "And if someone could come and get me, that would be great."

Slowly, Oliver forced his body into action, crawling across the floor towards Isabel. As he got to her, he saw that her body was ripped with more bullet holes than he could count in the time that he had. He checked for a pulse, knowing that he would find none.

"The Queen is dead." Oliver muttered weakly.

_"You hit?" _Sara asked.

"Uh huh." was all Oliver could get out of before the loss of blood hit him like an anvil, forcing him to pass out where he sat.

* * *

The light that Oliver could see caused his head to pound.

"He's waking up." Roy shouted, causing a pain to ripple through Oliver's head.

"Shhhhh." Oliver managed to get out as his eyes open to see him staring up at the Foundry's ceiling.

"Sorry." Roy whispered, which was almost as grating.

"It's fine." Oliver muttered as he sat up, gently swinging his legs over the side of the table. Over the years as The Green Arrow, Oliver's tolerance for pain had grown to the point that he barely felt the pain.

Not that his body knew that. In fact, the second Oliver sat up, his body did its very best to force him back down on the table with only Oliver's stubbornness keeping him upright.

"How bad was I?" Oliver asked no one in particular.

"Not that bad really." Sara said shortly. "Three hits: one in the thigh, one in the arm and a graze at the hip. The one in the arm stuck but the one in your thigh went clean through and missed basically everything important. The one in your arm missed important stuff but got stuck in there. It was a piece of cake to take out, though."

"Good." Oliver replied weakly.

"Yes, because it means that you'll be up for talking with her." Diggle countered, his eyes trailing to the corner of the room.

Tied, strapped, bound and gagged to a chair, which was bolted to the floor, was a very pissed off looking Helena Bertinelli. Not that Oliver was very happy right now either. In fact, upon seeing her, Oliver nearly exploded with rage. As quickly as he could without hurting himself, Oliver stood up and staggered towards his assassin ex-girlfriend.

Grabbing Felicity's computer chair, Oliver dragged it behind him until he reached Helena. Flipping the chair around him, he sat in it, leaning towards Helena despite the pain the position put him.

"Now, here's how this works: I take the gag off, you tell me everything about Merlyn, then I send you back to The Labyrinth where you spend the rest of your life."

Leaning further forward, Oliver united the fabric gag around Helena's mouth, letting it fall to the ground.

"Hey, honey." Helena said sweetly although Oliver could hear the mocking in her tone.

"Knock it off, Helena. I'm not joking. Why work with Merlyn?"

"He was cuter than you." Helena replied, feigning an honest answer. Internally, Oliver could feel his patience already starting to wear.

"Doubtful." Oliver answered, doing his best to match her. "Now, why work with him?"

"Well, he did break me out of jail. Something that you never did." Helena shot back, venom suddenly dripping from her voice.

"And that's exactly as I wanted it." Oliver smirked before leaning back in his chair. "I'm amazed you couldn't get out of there yourself."

"Even you couldn't get out of there."

"We'll agree to disagree there. Now, what is Tommy's plan?"

"You think that he shares that kind of information with me?" Helena mocked. "I was told that we were going to go and light you up. I wanted every opportunity I could after you _put me in that hellhole."_

"I put you in that hellhole because you tried to kill my sister." Oliver replied shortly. "Did you really think I was going to be begging to get you out of there after that?"

"I tried to kill your sister to get your attention, Ollie. I wanted you to fight me, to kill me. With Michael and my stupid father gone, I was all that was left in my world, especially after you stopped visiting me."

"I stopped visiting you because you killed six guards in your first attempt to escape Iron Heights!" Oliver retorted harshly. "Plus, it's not exactly a good PR move for the struggling CEO of a Fortune 500 company to visit his homicidal ex-girlfriend in jail."

"You came to see me after Dad died..."

For a second, Oliver saw the frightened and broken young woman that he had met when he had met with her father the first time. Unfortunately, Oliver had spent too time in this world to simply forgive her for what she had done. For what she had done to herself mostly.

"I came to see you before you went to prison because I wanted to see what was left of you. If the version of Helena that I had loved was actually in there."

"And?" Helena questioned softly.

"She was definitely in there." Oliver said softly as he sat in front of her. "But I think you've buried her. She's dead and gone now and once that happened, I had no desire to see you again."

"That's too bad." Helena whispered. Oliver was certain that she was talking to herself.

For a couple minutes, Oliver let her sit in silence, giving her as much of a reprieve as he could before continuing his questioning.

"You know who Tommy is working for, don't you?"

Suddenly, the look on Helena's face changed. Gone as the sadness or the rage, replaced by a look of fear. All Oliver got in response was a slow nod.

"Ra's al Ghul is a criminal mastermind like the world has never seen." Oliver warned menacingly. "If he has sent Tommy to Starling, that means trouble, Helena. I know that you have your issues, most of them having to do with me and your father but I don't believe you would willingly submit an entire city, or worse, to the likes of Ra's al Ghul."

"No, no I wouldn't." Helena said sadly.

"Then what do you know?"

"Nothing, nothing important anyway. I know that he's been back to visit The Merlyn Estate but I don't know if he's using it as a base or not."

"Anything else?" Diggle asked suddenly. "Has he been in contact with anyone for The League? Anyone from Tempest?"

"The only person he contacted while I was in his employ was a woman but I never got her name. He used a codename: Demon Child."

The use of that particular name instantly caused Oliver's ears to perk up.

"Demon Child?" Oliver asked as he turned to match eyes with Sara. "You're certain?"

"Absolutely."

"And you wouldn't be lying to us, would you?" Oliver replied as his head whipped back around to face Helena.

"Why would I?" Helena said, challenging him fiercely. "I want you dead for what you've done and I wanted my father dead for what he did but I'm no mass murderer. I know I'm not going to have the opportunity to stop him anymore so any help I can give you will be given."

"Thanks." Oliver said shortly.

Before reaching forward and striking her directly in the head with a well placed fist, knocking her unconscious. Quickly, Oliver turned back to Sara.

"Is Nyssa the only person that nickname could apply to?"

"She has another sister, Talia, but I think she bailed on the League before even I got there. Fell in love with some American and ditched the League for him. She came back to the League a few times but she doesn't stay. It's only her relation to Ra's that keeps her alive."

"Is it possible that she has returned or is this definitely Nyssa?"

"With The League, either is a distinct possibility, although I would put my safe money on Nyssa."

For several seconds, Oliver simply sat and thought to himself. The recent reveal that Tommy was alive was nothing compared to what he feared would happen. More than likely, Tommy was sent back to remove Tempest members as he said, but for a different reason. It seemed logical that The League of Assassins was preparing to come and take over Starling City, whether it be via conventional attack or, more than likely, some kind of unseen machinations. If so, removing Tempest members who may have even had a glimmer of an idea about The League, those who were closest to Merlyn, was a smart move before moving into the city.

Finally, Oliver had formulated a plan. Now, he needed to move it into action.

"Diggle, take Helena to Quentin's office. He'll know who she is and what to do with her."

"Got it." Diggle said as he moved to start his task.

"Sara, I want you to locate Talia al Ghul. We need to know if we're dealing with someone we know or some other variable."

"Can do."

"Roy, go pick up Thea and Felicity and bring them to Queen Mansion. We'll operate out of the bunker there for the time being. I'm going to pack up as much of the gear here as we can so that we have to make as few trips into the city as possible."

"Oliver, what's wrong?" Sara asked softly, placing a hand on his arm gently.

"I think we need to start preparing for an invasion."

"From who?"

"Ra's al Ghul."


	6. V: Luthor

**A/N: For those of you that are going to send me a review about a sudden change in a character, don't forget: People change.**

**A/N v.2: BTW, you knew this was coming.**

* * *

For nearly a week after their run-in with Helena Bertinelli, Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow, Felicity included, had been working on transforming Queen Mansion into Fort Queen. With every person that lived in Queen Mansion part of The Green Arrow's night time activity in some way and with Oliver's overwhelming desire to protect his family, the decision was made to secure Queen Mansion.

With Felicity's leadership, the entire mansion's security system was bolstered with remote locks inside every window and door. Plus, as Oliver's own way to honor his father, a command center of sorts had been established in Robert's old office for Team Arrow to keep tabs on Starling City.

"Why the hell didn't we do this sooner?" Sara asked as they put the finishing touches on the Arrow Command Center.

"Probably because, as CEO of a Fortune 500 company, I'm expected to have a few social gatherings a year at my family's house." Oliver replied shortly with a smirk. "However, I'm certain that we can hide most of this stuff when that does happen."

"Long term, we could probably build hidden compartments into the walls here to hide our gear. Other than that, the rest of it is just computer equipment. I'm certain that Felicity could mask just what these computers are doing so that if someone would happen to walk in here, and it should be locked tight, all they see are nice computers looking at QC files."

"John, I could do that quicker than Barry could get here."

"Now that's fast." Roy replied as he too took a seat.

Just outside of their office, Diggle and Roy had set up an area where they could "monitor the news," although Oliver could have sworn he heard Diggle saying something about baseball. The area to "monitor the news" included several couches and recliners in the middle of the room and eight large flat-screen TVs on the one wall. Oliver already appreciated what the room could be simply for Team morale. He knew that he hadn't been great about actually enjoying his time with his teammates. Others would say that their mission was too important to waste time "improving morale."

But Oliver knew better. He knew that they needed to have complete trust in one another and the only way to do that was to spend time together, as a Team, without worrying about going on patrols or who was trying to kill them.

In fact, some time like that would be good for them now.

"Sit down." Oliver said softly as he took one of the large recliners and turned the largest, center TV to Channel 52 News.

Hearing Oliver, the rest of the team came and joined him, either in their own recliner or on one of the large couches in the room.

"This is nice." Sara said as she collapsed into a chair across the room. "I can't believe it's taken us a week to finally be able to sit down."

"Yeah and hopefully we'll be able to get out of here soon." Roy replied.

"Speak for yourselves." Thea uttered shortly. "I live here. Permanently. You guys just transformed my house into a well-equipped prison."

"I prefer the term fortress." Felicity smiled. "It's more _protective."_

"Protective or not, we've been trapped in my own house for a week. At least when Oliver finally decides it's safe for us to leave, you have something to do. I just get to go back to managing Verdant."

"Which you do very well." Oliver said with a grin. "Either way, once we know which of the al Ghul sisters we are dealing with, we'll be able to address our situation a little better."

"Oh we may want to leave a bit quicker than that." Felicity replied as she pointed to the TV.

If Oliver had thought that a week hidden away inside his old house was a terribly depressing way to spend a week, the information that he saw on TV simply capped it off, making it a terrible, terrible week.

In massive letters on the TV were the words: _**BRUCE WAYNE COMES TO STARLING**_**_  
_**

"Turn on the sound." Oliver ordered with Felicity complying seconds later.

_"...intends to meet with Lex Luthor, CEO and majority owner of LexCorps. LexCorps intends to open a branch of operations in both Starling and Gotham City. No one is entirely sure why the two are meeting but speculation is that the pair will attempt a cooperative takeover of Queen Consolidated. Wayne and Queen have reportedly been at odds since Queen hired Felicity Smoak, QC's new Technological Director of Governmental Affairs. Smoak had previously worked for Queen as his executive assistant before leaving to take a position as Director of Computer Design and Research at WayneTech. There were rumors that Wayne and Queen argued during a meeting in Gotham City. Representatives from all sides have declined to comment."_

"Of course, this is the week I tell the Board I'm going on vacation." Oliver sighed before pulling out his cell phone, quickly dialing one of his assistants. "Emily, it's Oliver. Tell the Board I would like a meeting in two hours."

_"Absolutely, Mr. Queen." _Emily Ramsey, one of his three assistants replied. _"They are going to ask me who you intend to replace Ms. Rochev with. Do you have an answer?"_

"Yes, I'm naming my sister Chairman of the Board." Oliver answered before hanging up.

"WHAT?" Thea shouted at Oliver.

"Thea, look at me." Oliver replied calmly. "Rochev is dead. I need someone I can trust to work with the Board. Yes, they're going to look at you funny. Not as much as they're going to look at me funny, but they're going to give you bad looks. They're going to talk down to you. It will be difficult. However, with The League coming-"

"You think." Felicity reminded him...again.

"Yes, thank you, Felicity." Oliver said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, with The League coming, I need my focus to be there. So, you will be my representative for the time being with the Board."

As angry as she was, Oliver could see that she was thinking it over. Finally, she rolled her eyes and smiled back at her older brother.

"Fine." she said shortly. "What's the cover?"

"You have small business experience. We both know my propensity for disappearing at times and you would be ideal to replace me in those times." Oliver answered before he had a sudden epiphany. "In fact, I believe that I have just figured out a way to secretly ensure that we can keep QC."

"How?" Felicity questioned curiously.

"We take the trust that Dad left for Thea and use all of it to purchase QC shares. Once we do that, we then consolidate our shares into a single trust and we name ourselves the controls, each with a 50% stake. With that, the pair of us should be able to control almost 80% of QC shares. Now, LexCorps and WayneTech will buy out a lot of that but we should be able to weather the storm and maintain majority control of the company."

"That _should _work." Felicity answered. "When did you learn so much about finance?"

"As much of a pain in the ass as she could be, Isabel Rochev did provide several good books on business and finance." Oliver replied before turning back to Thea. "You have to come with me to QC. The rest of you stay here and help Sara look for Talia."

"Of course." Diggle replied.

With that, Oliver and Thea stood and gathered their things. Within only a few minutes, the pair of them were inside one of Oliver's many vehicles, headed towards Starling with the intent to save their family's legacy.

* * *

After a rather uneventful meeting of the Board where Oliver outlined his plan to keep control of his family's company, Oliver and Thea sat patiently inside his office. Once it was learned that Thea Queen was being named Chairman of the Board at Queen Consolidated, every reporter in town wanted to get in touch with them. To that end, Oliver decided the only way to end the constant barrage of phone calls and emails was to schedule a press conference.

However, Oliver didn't want to just announce Thea's new position. He had other plans to put LexCorps and WayneTech back on defense.

"Do we have anything we can announce?" Oliver asked Felicity over speaker phone.

_"Not particularly." _Felicity replied shortly. The strain in Felicity's voice was obvious. She had only had her job for a few weeks but already she felt the pressure to come up with that splash announcement she had planned when she postponed her trip back to Gotham.

"Great. Is there anything that is most of the way there?"

_"My department has a new sonic weapon. It produces a harmonic frequency that can be adjusted to the proper harmonic for any known substances and, with only a few exceptions, once that perfect harmonic is found, it will cause the molecules inside that substance to become unstable. We can use that to either cause it to explode or to disassemble itself."_

"Sounds perfect." Oliver replied shortly. "Why can't we announce it yet?"

_"We haven't gotten approval from DOD to begin field tests."_

"Give them a call." Oliver ordered. "In one hour, I want a call back saying that we're allowed to announce it today."

_"I'll do my best."_

"I'm sure you will." Oliver said before hanging up.

For a second, Oliver thought that he was going to get a couple moments of silence. Unfortunately for him, his sister had other plans.

"Who is Ra's al Ghul?" Thea asked softly.

In the years since Thea found out about Oliver's secret, they had agreed on a moral truce of sorts: Oliver would never lie to here but he would frequently refuse to tell her anything to avoid her knowing about more than she needed to. While Oliver was certain that Roy was telling her more than he was, that was certainly fine with him. He still regretted Speedy finding out at all so the less he could involve her, the better, at least in his opinion.

Not that she let herself be kept out of the loop.

"You don't want to know, Speedy." Oliver replied shortly, his eyes still closed as he leaned back in his chair.

"Oh but I do." Thea replied with a grin, knowing that Oliver would tell her if she pressed him. So, he did.

"You've heard us mention The League of Assassins." Oliver started with Thea nodding her head in confirmation. "Well, The League of Assassins is run by Ra's al Ghul. Now, the rumors about Ra's al Ghul scatter from the mundane to the extraordinary. Some say that he is immortal, others say that he isn't one man at all but the name is simply a title given to the leader of The League of Assassins. Personally, I think it's somewhere in the middle. We suspect that the Mirakuru, the serum that runs through Roy's blood, was actually either discovered or created by The League."

"So you think that it has some sort of effect on a person's lifespan?" Thea questioned.

"That's the line of thinking that we're going with until we find something else out."

"Well, wha-"

Whatever Thea was going to ask was interrupted by a phone call from Felicity. Quickly, Oliver answered the call and put her on speaker.

_"We've got the contract and testing. I've planned testing for tomorrow. If all goes well, and it will, it mean a 11.3 billion dollar contract with the DOD for a range of weapons with this technology."_

"Good work, Ms. Smoak." Thea commented.

"Absolutely." Oliver replied before standing up, adjusting his tie as he did. Once he was up, he dialed the number of Anderson Shepard. "Anderson, let the press into the conference room. In 30 minutes, I'll be making a statement to the press."

"You always did enjoy talking to the public."

Now, if Felicity Smoak's return to Starling City had been a surprise, the return of the eldest Lance sister was a complete shock. But as Oliver looked up from the work on his desk, it most certainly was Laurel Lance, Coast City District Attorney, standing in his doorway.

"I'll see you downstairs." Thea replied with a nervous smile as she walked out of the room.

* * *

For a few seconds, Oliver just stared. He had no clue why Laurel was back, and especially no idea why she was standing in his office, but it was either very good or very bad.

"Laurel." Oliver eventually choked out.

"Oliver." Laurel replied as she marched towards him, stopping inches away from his face.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Oliver asked nervously.

"Trust me, this is no pleasure." Laurel answered as she sat down in front of Oliver's desk. "But, I had no one else to turn to."

"What is it?"

Several beats passed before Laurel even bothered to look at him, let alone answer. When she did, Oliver could see that something definitely wasn't right.

"I need your help." she uttered softly, looking at the floor. "How closely do you follow Coast City news?"

"I don't."

"Pretty much what I figured." Laurel said with a dark laugh. "Anyway, there was this case. A notorious mob boss gets arrested at the scene of a quadruple homicide. The gun used to kill the four people belonged to him. The location belonged to him. His fingerprints were on the gun, although it was argued that could have happened at any time."

"Which is true."

"It is." Laurel admitted. "So, I order my ADAs to throw the book at him. Maximum life sentences for each murder. However, when we go to trial, one of my ADAs makes a mistake that not even a first year law student would make. This lawyer wouldn't make this mistake either. She was one of my best. This mistake, I'm not going to bother to explain it, just trust me. Anyway, this mistake gives reasonable doubt."

"And the jury bites." Oliver says, finishing her story.

"Absolutely." Laurel remarks bitterly. "He gets a minimum deal of eighteen months for violation of probation orders by owning a gun."

"Why is this your problem?"

"Because six weeks later, my reckless ADA resigns. She says that she can't handle being a lawyer anymore."

"You make a mistake like that-"

"Remember how I said I didn't think it was a mistake." Laurel interrupted. "Well, I was able to convince a judge that I was right and got access to her financial records."

"Oh boy." Oliver mumbled.

"Ten million dollars!" Laurel shouted, slamming her hands on his desk in front of him. "It happened in several smaller transactions but there's no way to hide ten million dollars."

"So what happened?"

"We order the arrest warrant and go to her place. Thankfully, she's still there but she's literally packing."

"She was going to disappear?" Oliver asks.

"With ten million dollars." Laurel added grimly.

This sounded like a corruption case on Gotham City's scale. While none of America's major cities were known as being a place for angels, Gotham City definitely earned its reputation for being as corrupt as they came. While Oliver may hate the man, he hoped that Wayne was right about his ability to right the wrongs of that city.

"So what's your problem?"

"I've been asked by the Mayor to resign."

"What? Why?" Oliver shouted.

"Because I personally vouched for this ADA when I hired her. Even though they can't truly connect me, they say that I should have moved quicker. If I would have worked on my hunch quicker, they would have been able to declare a mistrial and retry him. Now, he's getting out of jail in four months, two if he behaves."

Even though she may have hated Oliver, he couldn't help but feel bad for her. She had worked hard to overcome her own demons and get to a good place. Now, it was being taken away from her by a greedy young ADA who couldn't resist the allure of being a multi-millionaire.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I have to resign." Laurel said shortly. "You can't fight something like this. As it is, I'm not in a huge amount of debt or anything like that. However, I do need to keep a job. Because of my...vices, if I don't work, things could get very bad."

"Laurel, are you asking for a job?" Oliver asked in shock.

"Don't make this harder than it has to be!" Laurel roared. "Yes, I am. I try to keep my prior issues private and if I want to go through an application process with anyone else, all that is going to come back and any chance of getting hired is gone."

"Alright, let's see." Oliver said, opening a list of charitable organizations QC owned. "Here. QC's Legal Aid Assistance Program. It works out of Queen Tower but also has an office in The Glades. Dedicated in memory of Tommy Merlyn."

All of the sudden, Oliver began to panic. He suddenly realized that Tommy's reappearance could have giant ramifications to the woman in front of him.

"How does that sound?" Oliver asked softly.

"Good. What would I be doing?"

"It works very similarly to CNRI. Through my own funds, we provide legal aid to those who can't afford it themselves, especially those who have been wronged by large corporations."

"Works for me." Laurel replied before noticing the strange look on his face. "Is everything okay, Oliver?"

"Yeah, although there is something you should know. You see-"

"Mr. Queen?"

Looking up, Oliver saw Anderson standing in the doorway.

"Anderson?"

"They're ready for you."

For now, his conversation with Laurel would have to wait. Standing, Oliver again fixed his tie before marching out of the room and down the hall to his own personal press conference hall. As expected, the room was packed and he was instantly barraged by questions the second he hit the door. Pushing his way through the crowd, Oliver finally made his way to the podium.

"Firstly, I would like to offer my condolences to the friends and family of Isabel Rochev. Isabel was a valued member of the QC team and we will all miss her greatly. We hope to offer SCPD with any assistance and resources they need to assist in finding Isabel's murderer."

Oliver wasn't entirely sure but he could have sworn he heard Thea chuckle just after the word "valued." For Thea's sake, he hoped he was imaging it.

"Unfortunately, business must go on at Queen Consolidated. With the vacuum left by Ms. Rochev, we found ourselves in need of a new Chairman of the Board. For the last few years, my sister, Thea Queen, has expressed an interest in joining QC to help further my family's legacy but the timing never seem right. Now, with the not-so-veiled threat from Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne, I couldn't think of a better time. So, as CEO of Queen Consolidated, I am naming Thea Queen to the Board of Directors as Chairman."

Instantly, the room exploded with questions. Patiently, Oliver waited with his hand in the air, requesting silence in the room. Once he got it, he continued.

"When I took over at QC, I was not what one would consider a business mastermind." Oliver said with a smirk, causing the reporters in the room to laugh. "But, over time, I have taken Queen Consolidated to places that my father never dreamed of. Without the opportunity to stretch my legs, I may have never know just how capable I was. This is the opportunity I am now affording my younger sister. Thea has been the owner/operator Verdant in The Glades for a few years now and we will bring her youth and energy to QC and use it where it is greatly needed: to help the people of Starling City get back on their feet."

Again, Oliver was bombarded by questions and once again, Oliver patiently waited them out.

"I have two other announcements." Oliver said, looking to the back of the room where Laurel stood. Seeing her head nod, Oliver continued. "First, I am very excited to announce a new project with The Department of Defense. Queen Consolidated has specialized in non-lethal weaponry since I took over as CEO and today is no different. Today, Queen Consolidated VP Felicity Smoak signed a deal with the DOD to manufacture a new form of sonic weaponry for the US military. You will be able to talk to Ms. Smoak more about that later."

While that news was exciting, it was mostly for potential investors as the information about the weapons given to reporters would be minimal. However, Oliver knew that their next story would certainly be a bombshell. "

Second, and more personal to me, I have hired a new lead counsel for Queen Consolidated's Legal Aid Assistance Program. To most citizens of Starling City, she should be a familiar face. I am proud to bring one of Starling's brightest back home and welcome to the QC family, Laurel Lance!"

If the room had been loud before, it was nothing compared to the audible explosion that occurred as Laurel made her way to the front. Shaking hands with Oliver, the pair posed for a picture before Oliver returned to the microphone.

"As most of you know, Laurel Lance is one of my oldest friends. I couldn't be happier to bring her back to Starling City." Oliver said with a smile that was hardly returned by Laurel. "Now, you will all get press releases in your email later. No questions for the time being."

* * *

Later that evening, Oliver sat in his Queen Mansion bedroom which he had mostly converted into his own office. Each of the current tenants (Oliver, Sara, Thea, Diggle, Roy and Felicity) had been given their own room to do with as they wish as a place to escape. With the six of them living there, it could get quite cramped even with the massive size of Queen Mansion. So, after the long day of work at Queen Tower, Oliver retreated to his room for some much needed personal space.

Unfortunately, that space was invaded only moments after he arrived home. While he sat on his desk, which he had changed to face away from the door, someone had snuck in behind him, which meant only person could be there.

"Lead counsel for the Legal Aid Assistance Program?"

"Yes, Felicity." Oliver replied with a smirk. "Do you have a problem with it?"

"Not at all." Felicity answered as she marched in front of him before landing on his bed gently. "I just think it's funny that she leaves town screaming at you and then in her moment of need, you're the person she goes to for help."

"Laurel and I have a very complicated relationship."

"Sounds familiar." she shot back.

"Felicity..."

"Oliver, we've talked about this enough since I've came back." Felicity replied shortly. "I'm glad to be back in town. I'm glad to be back here with you."

"But you aren't with me, Felicity." Oliver fired back, an edge creeping into his voice. "You may work for QC again but that's the extent of your relationship with me."

"And what do you want from me?" Felicity replied, her eyes narrowing.

"I want Felicity Smoak back." Oliver answered shortly.

"I'm right here, Oliver."

"You know what I mean." Oliver answered pointedly.

"I do." Felicity admitted sadly. "Look, Oliver, you remember what I told you at the hospital, right?"

"I do." Oliver replied, echoing Felicity.

"Well, then you know why I don't _hang out _with you anymore and why we can't pursue any kind of relationship."

"I'm not asking for any kind of relationship other than a friendly one. I would love to just be able to go out and get Big Belly Burger with you or something like that."

For a few seconds, Felicity looked at Oliver peculiarly. Finally, she answered in a voice that hovered just above a whisper.

"We'll see." was all she said.

It took Oliver several seconds to snap out of his fog and remember that she had obviously come in here for a reason. Sitting up, Oliver did his best to clear his mind before he spoke.

"So you obviously didn't just wander in here: what can I do for you?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time that I just wandered in here." Felicity replied absentmindedly before a look of horror crossed her face as she realized what she had just said. "Not what I meant. I've only walked in here when you were here. I mean, you weren't awake, but...ok, stopping now."

"Good idea." Oliver chuckled.

"No kidding." Felicity muttered, her face redder than a tomato. "Anyway, you remember that Bruce Wayne is in town?"

"Felicity, I literally spent all day dealing with that." Oliver replied with a smile.

"Oh...yeah, anyway, he's in town supposedly meeting with Lex Luthor."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, Wayne hates Luthor. I mean, really hates him, more than he hates you, which is impressive because he really, REALLY hates you."

"Thanks for that."

"No problem." Felicity replied without realizing that Oliver had spoke entirely in sarcasm. "Anyway, it got me wondering why he would choose to meet with Luthor over you."

"And I'm assuming you found something?"

"I did."

Quickly, Felicity flipped her tablet around to show him what she had found. A quick skim of the information meant that Oliver saw words like "asteroid," "theft" and "explosive properties."

"We both know I'm not going to read all of this." Oliver mused with a grin at Felicity. "What's the deal?"

"Two years ago, LexTech scientists found an asteroid near the North Pole. Now, this is important because the asteroid's molecular make-up couldn't be identified. It was nothing that we had ever seen before."

"How come we didn't hear about this?"

"It's still considered a scientific anomaly even though basically everyone that's looked at it has agreed with the findings." Felicity said as she started to find her groove. Oliver knew better than to interrupt her from now until she was done. "So, we have this compound that we can't identify. And it's big, like three semi trucks parked next to each other big. It's cut into three pieces and then airlifted to LexTech HQ in Metropolis. From there, various tests are performed on the "sample." They find out that it gives off a small, almost negligible amount of radiation. As far as they ever discovered, it does nothing to us. However, they did find something else about it: it's incredibly volatile."

"Volatile, how?" Oliver asked, unable to prevent the question from slipping out.

"When exposed to high temperatures, it becomes explosive. Like atom bomb explosive. A golf-ball sized piece could take down Queen Tower. A size roughly the size of a softball could wipe out all of The Glades. You get much bigger than that-"

"You're taking out a city."

"Exactly!" Felicity replied excitedly. "So, this was kept under lock-and-key with only Luthor and a small crew of scientists having access."

"And why is that important?"

"Because it was stolen."

Well, now that was something.

"Stolen? How much of it?"

"All of it." Felicity replied, the look in her eye suggesting that she already had her conspiracy theory formulated. "The entire chunk, all 150 tons of it, just disappeared overnight. Here's where things get weird: not a single security alarm went off and no one noticed the giant rock disappear. Video footage from the evening is corrupted and a smaller than usual security crew was scheduled for the evening."

"Meaning this was an inside job."

"Exactly and I think it was the highest kind of inside job."

"You believe that Luthor arranged for the theft of this asteroid." Oliver asked skeptically.

"I do." Felicity replied before switching her tablet to a second screen. This was a list of bank records. "These are Lex Luthor's accounts, all of them and let me tell you, the man is hiding more money than he's publicly listed as being worth, which is all kind of suspicious. But what's mostly suspicious is this: transactions from numerous sources in Jordan, Pakistan and North Korea. When I do a little digging, all of these accounts relate to someone that has, at bare minimum, being accused of funding international terrorism."

"So you think that Luthor stole this rock from his own company and is planning on selling or has already sold it to terrorists? Why would he do that? As you put it, he's got more money that we thought he did and he's already the wealthiest man on the planet."

Oliver's skepticism hardly affected Felicity. Instead, she charged back into her accusations headfirst.

"I think that most of his wealth didn't come from LexTech. I think that the reason he's hiding so much of his wealth is that he acts as some kind of international broker. If you go back even further, almost every account that he's working with is connected to something illegal."

"You think that Wayne has this information?"

"I know he does." Felicity replied firmly. "He's here, not to worry about QC, but Luthor. I think he needed an excuse to get close to him and his company's financial records and this was the best way for him to do it."

Instantly, Oliver was up and moving into the next room. After a relatively quick walk down the hall, he found himself inside the new Arrow Command Center where every other housemate was already waiting.

"When is Wayne meeting with Luthor?" Oliver asked Felicity as he brought up all the information they had on the other two billionaires.

"Right now, actually." Felicity replied as she bumped Oliver out of the way and continued what he had been doing, only three times faster. "When we wake up, they'll have started buying. QC stocks are typically quite low in the morning and then as the business day goes on, we build."

"So, they'll start early." Oliver said to himself before turning to Thea. "Did you get that paperwork filed?"

"I did. All we have to do is call the trading board when we want it activated."

"Already. Here's the deal, Felicity did some digging and we believe that Luthor acts as some kind of trading broker. He sold or will sell an asteroid found two years ago that has unidentifiable properties other than that when it's heated, it blows up nuclear bomb-style."

"Not good." Diggle muttered.

"Not at all. We know that Wayne is encouraging this deal with Luthor to get rid of me but he also wants a closer look at Luthor's business records. With those, Wayne can probably create a case against Luthor. So, we want Wayne to get those records which is great because that meeting is happening now. However, we can't let the pair of them take QC. So, what we'll do is wait until they start buying. Once they do that, Thea will call in to combine our shares into a single trust."

"And unless they want to lay down an insane amount of money, they won't be able to top the shares the pair of you have." Roy replied.

"Exactly." Oliver confirmed.

"Oliver."

It was Felicity and her tone of voice worried Oliver greatly. Looking over at her, Oliver saw the fear in her face.

"What is it?"

"The sale. It's happening here."

"What? How do you know?"

"I hacked into his cell phone and was able to turn the microphone on. While I can't get audio samples, I get a text transcript of everything that he's saying."

"What's he saying?"

"He's talking on the phone with someone." Felicity replied, reading through the lines of text she was looking at. "Oh dear."

"What?" Oliver asked, again fearful of what she may say.

"He's talking about something called Kryptonite. That must be what they're calling that substance. He's promising someone that it does what it says and that he's going to prove it to them, so they know they're spending their money on the good stuff."

"Prove it to them? How?" Oliver asked in confusion.

For several seconds, Felicity read ahead until her mouth dropped in shock. Tears forming in her eyes, she turned to look at Oliver.

"They're going to blow up Queen Tower."

* * *

That evening, Oliver went solo with the rest of his team in his ear and waiting for his order. He knew that in order to both stop the sale of this Kryptonite asteroid and prevent his own company's building from being blown up, he would need help. The rest of Team Arrow had been tasked with ensure that Queen Tower was empty all night. With his own Team occupied, there was really only one place he could look for help.

Not that he liked that.

_"Are you sure you want to do this?" _Felicity asked in his ear.

"No choice. You guys have to clear out the building and I need help. He's the only one left and I know he's out here. In fact, where is he?"

_"Six blocks ahead. Looks to be on the roof of a building overlooking the hotel that Luthor is staying at."_

"Can you see Queen Tower from the hotel?"

_"Yes." _Felicity answered simply.

That was the only answer he needed. Once he heard her confirm that, he knew that at some point this evening Luthor would be entertaining guests in his hotel room with the destruction of Queen Tower.

Oliver very much intended to prevent that.

Racing across rooftops at a speed that Oliver rarely reached, it took Oliver only a minute to jump the six blocks of rooftops between the pair of them. Sure enough, when he reached the aforementioned rooftop, he was waiting.

And black battle armor was definitely the word for it. Dressed head to toe in a black material that looked to be rubber back with Kevlar, he had a long black cape that hung all the way to the floor and a cowl with two long pointy ears.

Not necessarily the most intimidating description although, even from behind, the look was exceedingly effective.

**"Queen."**

That voice. While Oliver used technology to hide his voice, Wayne did no such thing. Instead, he simply lowered his voice to the point of it being hardly recognizable. Again, it may have sounded silly when you tried to sneak up on him but when he was hanging you over the edge of the building, he imagined the effect would be quite frightening.

"Wayne." Oliver replied, his voice hidden.

Slowly, The Batman turned around, his steely eyes burning as he looked upon The Green Arrow. Now that he could see The Batman for what he really was, he was impressed. The armor had to be heavy but it didn't appear to sit uncomfortably on him. In fact, he looked more relaxed than Oliver had ever remembered seeing him during their previous meeting.

Maybe like Oliver, he felt more comfortable in the skin of his alter ego.

**"I'll give you one warning. Go home and I won't be forced to break any bones."**

"Last time I checked, you didn't have superstrength. Unless you do, you're not really what I'm worried about." Oliver replied, only mocking him slightly. Oliver took a seconds pause before he continued. "I need your help."

**"Not interested."**

"Don't give me that, Wayne." Oliver barked. "You're here for a reason. You know what Luthor's been doing. You just needed an excuse to confirm it."

**"Wiping out your company seemed like a good excuse."**

"We'll get to that tomorrow but you know what's going on today. You know that he's going to sell that rock to someone that is going to use it for terrible things and if Felicity was able to hack his phone, then so are you. Which means that you know that he intends to blow up Queen Tower."

**"Which is none of my concern."**

"It is. If you let Queen Tower explode and then attempt to buy QC, the timing is going to be seen as very convenient for the two of you. No doubt you'll get out of it by saying that you're just taking advantage of the circumstances. But if I survive, I'm leaking the information on Luthor. He'll go down and you'll go down with him."

For a second, it appeared as if Wayne was considering what he was saying.

**"Last chance to get out of my way."**

Guess not.

In a _flash, _Oliver nocked an arrow and fired. Unfortunately, Batman dove out of the way before reaching into his belt. As he got to his feet, he fired four small blades at The Arrow. Moving as quickly as he could, Oliver dove, reaching for the fletchettes on his arm. As he rose, he fired one of them at Batman, striking him in the arm. A roar from Batman let Oliver know that he had hit his mark.

In response, Batman charged. As he got within range, Batman reared his right hand back, going for a destructive haymaker. As he released the punch, Oliver caught it, using Batman's momentum to flip him over. Unfortunately, when Batman hit the ground, he stuck his leg out, sweeping Oliver off his feet. Roughly, Oliver hit the concrete, rolling away from Batman the moment he could.

He had moved just at the right moment as Batman had attempted to roll and throw a heavy elbow at the prone Archer. Using his roll, Oliver leapt to his feet, bow ready. As Batman moved to his feet, Oliver struck, blasting the Dark Knight with a strong swing of the bow. His aim was true and the bow cracked Batman in the jaw. A grunt escaped Batman's lips as he fought back to his feet.

This time, Batman approached slowly and more cautiously. A quick jaw caught Oliver right in the jaw. Unfortunately, this was just a set-up for a big hit as Batman stuck Oliver with a knee to his stomach, forcing all of Oliver's air out of his lungs.

Instantly, The Green Arrow saw stars and began gasping for air. Taking this as a victory, Batman turned away from Oliver.

Big mistake.

Once Oliver could move again, he jumped roughly to his feet. Moving as quick as he could, Oliver fired a trick arrow at the Batman's feet, tying them up and forcing him to the ground. As he hit the ground, Batman reached down with one of his blades, cutting the ropes. Thankfully, this gave Oliver enough time to catch his breath and step forward with his bow again.

This time, Oliver went smaller, much like Wayne had seconds earlier. Rather than one large strike, Oliver went for smaller strikes, making contact with his leg, shoulder and right arm. Finally, once Batman was off-balance, Oliver stepped forward and swung his bow directly into Batman's stomach.

Like Oliver had been seconds earlier, Batman collapsed, croaking as he worked for air. Unlike Batman, Oliver didn't take this as a win. Instead, he withdrew several arrows from his quiver and fired, pinning Batman to the roof of the building by his cape. Once that was done, Oliver pulled out one more and drew the bow, aiming it directly at Wayne's left arm.

Having fought the Batman for the first time, Oliver could tell a few things. One: The man was insanely talented as a fighter. Two: It was obvious that he hadn't been doing this as long as Oliver had. Three: His level of creativity during a fight was on par with Oliver's, which Oliver had never faced before.

"You don't listen and I put this arrow in your arm."

**"Go for it."**

"Damn it, Wayne!" Oliver shouted in frustration. "I don't want any of this. I want to save my city, you want to save yours. Help me save mine. You don't care about Starling, why should you? I do. Queen Consolidated does more for this city than the rest of the city's charitable organizations combined. Even if you buy the company out, Queen Tower is a sign of that. That tower goes down, this city goes with it."

For a few seconds, Wayne continued to glare at Oliver, a look of pure hatred in his eyes. However, Oliver could see the gears inside Wayne's head moving. Sure enough, second later, Wayne's gaze broke.

**"What's the plan?"**

Trusting Wayne not to attack him, Oliver removed the arrows pinning him to the ground. Slowly, Wayne stood, obviously still enraged at being "beaten" but taking it rather well, Oliver thought.

"I already have a team clearing out Queen Tower." Oliver started. "It should be empty. What I'll need you to do is access the sewers. With my team securing the building and there being nothing out of the ordinary, they must be attempting the blow up the building at its base. Go to the sewers and prevent them from blowing up that asteroid."

**"Fine. What will you be doing?"**

"I'll start by providing street support. Once you've confirmed that you have taken care of them, we'll move to Luthor's location."

**"Why am I the one going into the sewers?"**

"Between the two of us, you're better equipped to fight in small spaces and we're going to need one of us to remain on top to ensure that no one gets tries to come in for back-up."

**"Fine."**

With that, the two of them took off. Oliver had to admit that he was impressed with how quickly Wayne was able to move with all the armor on. Within only a few minutes, Oliver and Wayne arrived at Queen Tower. Once Felicity directly them to the most likely sewer entrance, Wayne moved down into the sewers with his comm linked to Oliver's.

For several agonizing minutes, Oliver waited for something, anything.

Suddenly...

**"Done."**

"What?" Oliver said in shock. "I didn't hear anything."

**"Exactly."**

Wow was all Oliver could think.

_"The Batman is just as good as advertised." _Felicity muttered into his comm.

Making sure to block Wayne from this particular message, he replied: "Better. Hood and Arsenal, secure what is there. We'll be taking the sample to QC for analysis before sending it to WayneTech."

**"What?" **

"Well, I figured you would want to get something out of this. I keep Queen Tower, you get to look at that blasted asteroid."

**"Fair enough."**

That short response would have been nice if it hadn't happen right behind him. Oliver had found the only person on Earth not named Felicity Smoak that could sneak up on him.

To say it was mildly disconcerting was an understatement.

"Let's move." Oliver replied before taking off at a run. As they did, Oliver spoke. "I'll take a spot at the point we met tonight. When I say go, Felicity will shut off power to the building. I'll take out everyone but Luthor. You will breach and grab Luthor. Take him to the roof and I'll meet you there."

Oliver's only response was a grunt. Again, within minutes, they were back where they started. Oliver noticed that despite all the weight he was carrying, Wayne didn't even appear to be out of breath. Anyone else would have been dead with the pace they were moving at.

Oliver's begrudging respect for The Dark Knight continued to grow, as much of a dick as he was. Wayne quickly snuck into the building and got into position.

"We ready?"

**"Go."**

"Felicity, some help please."

With those words, the lights in Luthor's hotel room went dark. As they did, Oliver, who had put on night vision goggles, began to fire. By his count, there were six people in the room other than Luthor. The first got an arrow to the right shoulder, the second to the left leg. Person #3 got tied to a wall and #4 got electrocuted. #5 and #6 both got the same arrow to their legs, one left and one right.

With the rest of them out of the way, Oliver could see Wayne's shadow burst into the room, landing one destructive punch to Luthor's face, instantly knocking him unconscious. As Batman worked his way to the roof, Oliver launched a line to the hotel, ziplining across and landing gently on the roof. Just seconds later, Wayne emerged from the stairs with a very unconscious Luthor on his shoulder.

"You want to take care of him?" Oliver asked.

**"Gladly."**

"Good." Oliver replied. "If his buyers have connections in Starling, let me know."

**"Will do."**

With that, Wayne turned, pressing a few buttons on his wrist computer. For some reason, Oliver felt the compulsion to say something. Before he could Wayne spoke up, using his real voice.

"We're not friends, Queen." Bruce said shortly. "I don't condone killing in any way for whatever reason. But, so long as you don't kill anyone, I would work with you again."

"Really?" Oliver asked, unable to contain his shock.

"You're good. Much better than I thought you would be."

For some reason, Oliver had an idea that would be the only compliment he would ever receive from Wayne. Looking forward, he was right.

"Don't worry about QC. I won't be buying."

"You wouldn't have been able to buy us out anyway."

"I know." Bruce replied cryptically. With that, Bruce leapt off the side of the building. What he planned to do with Luthor, Oliver wasn't sure he wanted to know. What he did know is that he had found himself a new reluctant ally.

As reluctant as you could possibly be but an ally nonetheless.

In a world with Slade Wilson and Ra's al Ghul, you could always use more of those.


End file.
